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THE 



ODD FELLOWS' AMULET: 



OE, 



THE PRINCIPLES OF ODD FELLOWSHIP DEFINED 

THE OBJECTIONS TO THE ORDER ANSWERED; 

AND ITS ADVANTAGES MAINTAINED. 



ADDRESS 

TO THE PUBLIC,* THE LADIES, AND THE ORDER. 



BY / 

. D. W. BRISTOL, 



REV, 

n 

PASTOR OF THE M. E. CHURCH, AND P. G. OP OSCO LODGE, NO. 
AT AUBXTBN, N. T. 



AUBURN: 



DERBY, MILLER & CO., PUBLISHERS. 



1848. 



* 



h^ 



<&• 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, 

BY D. W. BRISTOL, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 

Northern District of New Y^)rk. 



STEREOTYPED BY 8. N. DICKINSON, BOSTON. 



TO THE FRIENDS OF HUMANITY, 

WHO "WOULD SEE 

WRETCHEDNESS AND SORROW BANISHED 

FROM OUR WORLD, 

AND WHO ARE STRIVING TO GIVE 

UNIVERSAL PREVALENCE 
TO THE DIVINE LAW, 

"3Do unto others as ge toouttr i)abe tljem tro unto gou," 

THIS WORK IS 

RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 

BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction, 5 

PART I. 
The Principles of Odd Fellowship Defined, 15 

PART II. 
Objections Answered, 36 

1. "It may be used fqr Political Purposes," 39 

2. " You administer Unlawful Oaths and threaten Un- 

lawful Penalties," 47 

3. " The Poor cannot become Members of it," 50 

4. "Odd Fellowship is limited in its Operations," 56 

5. "You create Distinctions in Society," 62 

6. " Yours is a Secret Institution," 66 

7. " You do not admit the Ladies," • • • « 92 

8. "The Church and Keligion cover the whole Ground," 103 

9. " It turns the Bible out of Doors," 123 

10. "Odd Fellowship is Freemasonry Revived," 127 

11. "Your Society compels the Good to associate with 

the Bad," 131 

12. "Your Regalia is Useless, Expensive, and Extrava- 

gant," 150 

13. " We object to your name — ' Odd Fellows ! ' " 158 

14. "It makes Christians fellowship the Wicked and the 

Infidel," 162 

1 5. " Odd Fellows are bound to shield each other from 

Punishment when Guilty,"- 167 

PART III. 
Advantages arising from Odd Fellowship, 175 

PART IV. 

A word to the Public, the Ladies, and the Order,- 235 



INTRODUCTORY 



The Institution of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows has arisen out of the force of circumstances. 
In all ages of the world, and in all countries, there 
have been reverses of fortune, poverty, oppression, 
and a carelessness on the part of those in easy or 
affluent circumstances in attending to the wants of 
the needy, and the absence of those social feelings 
which are so important to the harmony and comfort 
of the great whole. Under such circumstances, 
nothing is more natural than that those who are thus 
exposed to what all instinctively dread, should resort 
to some means to avoid the unhappy fate which has 
overtaken others. To do this, wealth is sought by 
all, as the most certain antidote, as the surest protec- 
tion. In its pursuit, multitudes fall through its open 



VI INTRODUCTORY. 

meshes into the dark whirlpool they were endeavor- 
ing to avoid ; while others, who are so fortunate as 
to attain the goal of their fondest wishes, arrive there 
with seared and calloused sensibilities, often without 
health or friends, or a disposition to employ their' 
means for their own or others' happiness. That such 
is the present state of society, under all the improve- 
ments and advantages of the present age, few, we 
apprehend, will be prepared to deny. 

It is this spirit, not the want of means, but a fear 
and an interest for self, for self alone, which has allow- 
ed want to gloat itself to surfeit on its countless vic- 
tims, and fill the annals of the day with the shocking 
details of misery, suffering, and crime, which exists 
in the very midst of affluence, and with good laws, 
too, for the relief of those who are in need. Im- 
pressed with these facts, men have endeavored to 
devise means by which they might avoid a catas- 
trophe so much to be dreaded, and at the same time 
remedy those other social evils which exist in society. 

They have seen one and another means fail which 
had this object in view. The parts composing these 
social structures have been so imperfectly joined as 
to be easily loosened, and the whole, one structure 



INTRODUCTORY. VU 

after another, has fallen into decay. This has sug- 
gested the necessity of a closer compact, a firmer 
union of materials, to give solidity and permanence 
to the body. As the result, we have the present 
organization of Odd Fellowship, which so far has ad- 
mirably answered the end for which it was formed ; 
and we trust it will continue to do so, until more 
powerful influences shall assert their proper dominion 
over the world at large. It is a striking fact, that 
those who most frequently suffer from poverty, are 
not those who were born in indigence, and have thus 
remained from a kind of choice of their own ; but 
they have been either in what is termed comfortable, 
or affluent circumstances in life, and by some sudden 
shift of fortune, or some unlooked for reverse in the 
ever-changing affairs around them, have been precipi- 
tated from their elevation, and immured in the dark 
obscurity of poverty. Such feel more keenly the 
degradation, which, by common consent, attaches to 
indigence, than those who never knew the comforts 
of competence. 

Hence, they have an aversion to make known their 
actual wants ; they put on the appearance of cheer- 
fulness, while, as was the case with the young Spar- 
tan, the fox is eating through the living flesh to their 



Vlll INTRODUCTORY. 

very vitals. This class of poor, above all others, are 
worthy of commiseration and the support of friends ; 
and they need these, to guard them, on the one hand 
against despair, and on the other against that misan- 
thropy which so often sports with the best feelings of 
man when in adversity. For such have to contend 
against the power of a double affliction ; they must 
bear up under the oppressive weight of poverty, 
while, at the same time, the recollections of the past, 
and of disappointed hopes, help to fill up their cup 
with unmingled bitterness. To those acquainted with 
the history of the poor in our great cities and large 
towns, the above remarks will not appear as specula- 
tion, since they are well aware that many who com- 
pose this class, are those who have been reduced to 
what they are, either by a long course of sickness, or 
the more cruel treachery of supposed friends, or by 
Providential occurrences entirely beyond their con 
trol. Such, with broken health and broken spirits 
are painfully toiling on to obtain a scanty subsistence 
or else submit to the agony of contending with fam 
ine and starvation themselves, or what is more cruel 
see those dearer to them than their own lives, gradu- 
ally wasting away before their eyes. One great 
design of this institution is to prevent to some extent 
these evils from falling on this class of our great 



INTRODUCTORY. IX 

family, by furnishing, in the time of need, the means 
which shall secure them from the abjectness of want, 
and thus save them from sinking into despair, when 
all their worldly prospects are darkened. 

Not only does it bring relief of a pecuniary na- 
ture, but it brings what is still more valuable — it holds 
the unfortunate in his place in society, and by the 
intercourse of friends, causes him to feel that misfor- 
tune is not a crime. Of course, we cannot expect 
this institution to do every thing which ought to be 
done in the world ; but should it succeed in banishing 
only a small amount of the physical affliction incident 
to this life, it will have performed a worthy office for 
our race ; or should it succeed in preventing only one 
human being from falling into moral crime, it would 
deserve the praise of having saved an incalculable 
amount of suffering. 

It is, perhaps, the case, that we are unable to 
appreciate the value of that which remedies an evil, 
until we shall have actually tasted the bitter cup our- 
selves ; then we shall be able .to appreciate the office 
which would have saved us the misery we are called 
to endure. It may be so here. He who goes about 
the world administering to wants which already have 



X INTRODUCTORY. 

a being, is regarded and praised as a philanthropist. 
Such an one is indeed worthy of all honor. But 
he who employs his time and means to prevent 
evil and wrong, is seldom or perhaps never thought 
of in this world, as being the instrument of good to 
man. It remains for the world to come, to reveal 
which has really been of the greatest use to his race. 
There we may learn that to save from evil, is a great- 
er virtue than to remedy it. This last is more par- 
ticularly the office of this society, and it is for this 
reason, doubtless, many have been led to suppose 
that it was doing but little in the sphere which it had 
selected as its field of labor. Indeed, it is one great 
design of this institution, to protect from those ene- 
mies of our peace those associated with us, and 
thereby save a vast amount of mental and physical 
suffering, as well as moral degradation. 

It may have been expected that we should say 
something respecting the antiquity of the Order. 
This we have not done in the body of this work for 
two reasons, the first is, it did not come properly into 
our plan, and secondly, we regard that as a subject 
of no importance whatever to the institution itself. 
When or where the Society commenced, is matter of 
small moment ; whether in the first or the fifteenth cen- 



INTRODUCTORY. XI 

tury, whether at Rome or among the hills of Scotland, 
whether among the early persecuted Christians, or 
among those of a later day, it matters not. These 
considerations can add nothing to its weight or real 
value. It must be taken for the intrinsic worth which 
it now possesses. Could we prove Odd Fellowship, 
in its present form, to be as old as the pyramids, it 
could make it no better ; while, if we show it to be 
good and useful, it detracts nothing from its real 
worth, though it should be conclusively shown to have 
been originated but yesterday. The great question 
to be settled is, its principles. These we have no hes- 
itancy in saying, are not only good, but ancient, as old 
as the Bible, from which they are taken. 

As to the propriety or impropriety, the utility 
or inutility of such institutions, there is, doubtless, 
as is the case with a multitude of other subjects, a 
great variety of opinion. While there will be some 
who will consider them useless, and even dangerous, 
there will be others of equal judgment, who will 
consider them useful, and even essential to the pub- 
lic weal. And as in nearly all countries, men are 
allowed to think and act according to their own 
inclinations on such subjects, we suppose they will 
continue to do so on this. This Society will live, and 



Xll INTRODUCTORY. 

men will continue to unite with, and love it, while 
others will suspect and oppose it. Each class will 
use their own legitimate privilege as citizens, being 
responsible civilly to the government under which 
they live, for what they do and say, and morally to 
God, the sovereign Judge of all men. 

We have no hard things to say of our opposers, 
no censure to cast on them ; and should anything be 
found in the following pages, which can be construed 
that way, no one will regret it more than the author. 
It is certain two wrongs can never make one right. 
If those who oppose us are pleased to censure us 
unjustly, we are not in the least disposed to add to 
the amount of evil by retaliation. 

We have endeavored to set before the world our 
principles, and the reasons which govern us in the 
course we have elected. This we have endeavored 
to do with candor and fairness. We may not have 
succeeded to the satisfaction of all. Nor is it proba- 
ble all will be led to embrace our views, or be con- 
vinced by the reasons we have given. Indeed, it 
would be a miracle if they should, since men differ 
with reference to the most obvious truths, on other 
subjects. It has also been our aim to furnish members 



INTRODUCTORY. XU1 

of the order with the means of their own defence, 
when attacked by those who do not understand the 
principles of the institution, or who through prejudice 
oppose them in what they conscientiously believe to 
be a work of duty and humanity. 

How far we have succeeded in this, they must 
judge. In doing this, we have endeavored to adhere 
to facts, as they actually exist, philosophically and 
morally. "We may have erred ; if so, it has been in 
all honesty, and after much study and thought to 
avoid error. Our impression has been from the first, 
and is now, that this is the cause of humanity — one 
which will bring to the suffering aid, and to those 
participating in its active duties much present profit- 
able enjoyment, and ultimately many blessings from 
those who were ready to perish. 

Auburn, N. Y., 1848. 



PART I. 



THE 



fllriwtyte of ©^ Miw$$\$ )Bcfwb* 

HE association of men, for 
mutual improvement and pro- 
tection, is as ancient as human 
society. 

Anterior to the flood, when 
Nature was in its early in- 
fancy, and men were few, they 
banded in union, for entertain- 
ment, instruction, for profit, and 
safety. Hence, at this early day, 
cities rose, girded with walls for their 
; defence, and arms were forged, to 




16 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

give success to martial enterprises, or to 
repel invasion. In the Patriarchal age, the 
same features of society are exhibited to 
us, and the lines of demarkation are more 
distinctly drawn ; for here each family is 
united as a little state, with its laws, and 
Parent as its Priest and Prince. At one 
time, these appear singly in carrying for- 
ward their immediate interests ; but when 
the necessity is great, and the foe numer- 
ous, they form confederacies to secure their 
purpose and to defend their rights. Abra- 
ham and the confederate kings, who march- 
ed out in defence of Lot, the kinsman of the 
Patriarch, is a beautiful illustration of the 
use they made of this law of union. Under 
what may be termed the Prophetic period, 
we have a still more perfect delineation of 
the same law of union. The families of 
God's ancient people were in the land of 
their bondage kept distinct, not only from 
the Egyptians, their oppressors, but from 
each other, and this, not as the result of 



17 



caprice on their part, but by an actual 
requirement of the Author of their peculiar 
national and religious existence. When 
they left the place of their oppression, they 
were required to do so by families, and by 
tribes ; when they passed the highway 
through the sea, they did it by the same 
rules; their journeyings for forty years in 
the desert, were governed by the same law ; 
and it was under the same requirements 
that they entered the land of promise, and 
received, by lot, their appropriate place in 
the long-looked-for rest ; the lines bounding 
their appointed inheritance being accurately 
denned. 

Nor is the Christian era less character- 
ized by the same distinguishing marks. It 
has been, and is now, distinguished by its 
churches, each having a noble end in view, 
but separated into a great variety of departr 
ments, few of which act as a unit, though 
all are contemplating the achievement of 
the world's good. 

2* 



18 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

It is the same in the world of morals. 
Each worthy object has been, from time to 
time, singled out, and elevated to such 
prominence as to commend itself to the sup- 
port of the community at large, and rally 
around its standard the good and virtuous 
for its support. Such is-the case in the cul- 
tivation of letters, the morality of the tem- 
perance cause, the circulation of the Holy 
Scriptures and religious reading, with name- 
less other good and worthy objects which 
distinguish the present age. Indeed, so 
universally does this feature -of society pre- 
vail, that we are justified in the conclusion 
that it is founded in a law of our nature ; 
for it is exhibited not only in civilized soci- 
ety, but among the semi-barbarous, and bar- 
barous tribes of our world. 

In the palmy days of Egypt, Phoenicia, 
Greece, Rome, and even among the wild, 
but noble race who roam our own wide wil- 
derness, we trace the same union for mutual 
protection and advantage. We look in vain 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 19 

for the spot in our world where this feature 
does not obtain. Nor is it the result of 
study, or contact with civilized men ; but it 
arises spontaneously out of the necessities 
which cluster around man when first he 
breathes in the world. 

The wild man of the tropics, and he who 
is clad in the skins of beasts at the poles, he 
who roams among the Himmalehs, and he 
of the Andes, as well as the polished Euro- 
pean, is controlled by the same imperative 
conventional rule, which arises out of a law 
of his own existence. 

It is this feature in society which, we 
conceive, justifies, if it does not proclaim the 
necessity for, the existence among men of 
an institution like that of Odd Fellowship : 
the design of which we shall now proceed 
to consider. 

If in any employment or enterprise, 
those engaged in it are unable to show some 
worthy object which is contemplated by 
them, they have but small claim on the in- 



20 

dulgence of the world, to which they appeal 
for countenance and support ; but in so far 
as the object they have in view is worthy 
and important, by so much may they look 
for sympathy from those to whom they 
make their appeal. Such, we are aware, is 
the case with the cause of which we now 
speak. It has been the misfortune of this 
institution, that it has been considered 
secret — to what extent, those without have 
not been agreed; yet this notion has pre- 
vailed so widely, that comparatively few 
have taken the trouble to examine whether 
the allegation was founded in fact, or how 
far the society felt itself at liberty to make 
public its principles, its objects, or its opera- 
tions. That there are some things con- 
nected with this institution which are 
necessarily secret, we do not pretend to 
deny ; but they are only those things which 
relate to the immediate interests of the 
order, and they have not the most remote 
bearing on the least interest of any one not 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 21 

connected with it. But the idea of secrecy 
has led some to suppose, innocently, no 
doubt, that all search would be in vain; 
and hence, they have either never made the 
attempt, or have received what they may 
have casually met with, respecting the 
order, with dark suspicion, or with cold dis- 
trust. Such may be surprised to learn that 
the principles and objects of the order have 
never been veiled in the least, but have 
been published and scattered as widely 
through the land as our circumstances 
would admit; yea, more, that the reports 
of the state of its membership and its 
finances, with its constitution and by-laws, 
have ever been given to the world. 

Having said thus much, in this place, of 
the past, and of secrecy, w r e are now pre- 
pared to speak more fully of the design of 
the institution of Odd Fellowship. 

The first advantage arising from this 
society, of which we shall speak, is the 
practical knowledge it gives its members in 



22 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

the manner and art of doing business in 
deliberative bodies. Those acquainted with 
the embarrassments of one unpracticed in 
this art, can at once appreciate the advan- 
tages of a school where he can practice, and 
study the art of speaking and action, in the 
enjoyment of respect, and free from fear 
and embarrassment. 

The Lodge-room is such a place. Here 
all those distinctions which obtain in society 
without are dissolved, here all meet with 
equal interest, and enjoy equal respect. No 
matter how humble the circumstances of a 
member may be, or how few the advan- 
tages he has enjoyed, he is here regarded 
as a member and a brother; and as such, 
he is protected and respected, his opinions 
are weighed, his judgment is honored ; hi a 
word, he is made to feel that he is a man. 
He is not made to cower and feel abashed 
under some rude rebuff, or to close his lips 
under the unmannerly sneer of an amused 
and promiscuous assembly. 



23 

Under such circumstances, the most 
timid finds out that he can learn as well as 
others, and confidence in one's self gives 
courage for more public action, when cir- 
cumstances demand it. 

All business in the Lodge-room is classi- 
fied and arranged in the most beautiful 
order, and every proceeding is forwarded 
with the most exact harmony ; so that the 
least attentive member cannot fail to have 
more or less method incorporated into his 
general habits of life. 

Indeed, order and regularity are among 
the first principles taught by the order. 
The rotation which is demanded by the 
institution in conferring its offices, cannot 
fail, sooner or later, to call out the talent of 
its members in one or another active busi- 
ness department of a deliberative or incor- 
porated body. While the constant recur- 
rence of these active business scenes, cannot 
fail to keep the details fresh in the mind, 
until they are fully and permanently im- 



24 THE ODD FELLOWS 5 AMULET. 

printed on the memory. It is in this way 
that this institution is noiselessly and cheap- 
ly instructing and preparing thousands of 
our countrymen in the first great duty of 
American citizenship, and instead of mak- 
ing them worse, is actually making them 
better, because more orderly and intelligent 
citizens. 

Another object contemplated by this 
institution is to make men " social and 
humane." Who has not more than once 
lamented the social distinctions which have 
obtained in society ? distinctions, not found- 
ed in moral, or intellectual worth, but which 
rest on the mere circumstance of property 
or connections! Who has not seen some 
that ranked high, when mind, or morals, or 
attainments are considered, who have been 
made outcasts from the very society they 
were fitted to adorn, because they were not 
rich, or had no connections who were in 
favor with such, to lift them into rank ? 
How often do we find such bound with the 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 25 

menial's chain, and compelled to drudge for 
those who, in comparison to them, are mere 
intellectual dwarfs, whose moral beauty 
bears no better comparison with that of 
their menials, than the present glory of the 
remotest star with the cloudless noonday 
sun. Nor can society, as it at present ex- 
ists, remedy this defect in our social system. 
Such an order of things always has, and, per- 
haps, always will exist. Nor do we pretend 
that Odd Fellowship will prove a universal 
remedy for this evil, because there are some, 
in every community, whom its. plastic hand 
will not be permitted to touch ; but this we 
can assert, and without fear of successful 
contradiction, that within the circle of its 
influence this baneful contagion will meet 
with a prompt and successful remedy ; that 
under its patronage, men will be taken 
at their true value, artificial lines will be 
obliterated, and society will stand togeth- 
er as they came from the hand of the 
Creator, " who has made of one blood all 



26 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

nations of men to dwell on the face of the 
earth." 

The basis on which the institution rests, 
is a sufficient guarantee of this. Indeed, it 
cannot depart from this rule, without vitiat- 
ing the whole system, because this is one of 
the important, we may say, most important 
principles on which it rests, and out of 
which arise many features of its beautiful 
details. Who will say that an office like 
this has no humanity connected with it? 
Who will not sympathize deeply with the 
family whose head is thus lifted above the 
clouds and darkness which had gathered 
around his social prospects, into the radi- 
ance and beauty of equal enjoyment with 
his fellow men, to whom he never would 
have been known, but for the friendly 
offices of this institution ? 

He is truly humane, who not only 
clothes the naked, and feeds the hungry, but 
who hunts out the wounds which lie fester- 
ing deep in the afflicted heart, and applies 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 27 

the healing ointment of consolation, by re- 
dressing the wrongs which have inflicted 
the hurts he would cure. And yet such is 
a prominent office of Odd Fellowship. 

Another prominent object contemplated 
by this order, is to train and correct the 
moral feelings of men. 

To those who have looked upon this in- 
stitution as evil and only evil, in its tenden- 
cies, this may appear a most strange posi- 
tion, but it is one which is nevertheless true. 
While this society boasts the discovery of 
no new principle of action, by which to 
govern the lives of its members, it does 
claim, and that with all truth, to enforce 
upon them no lower standard of morals 
than that which is taught in the Holy 
Scriptures. Hence, nearly all the instruc- 
tion it imparts, is drawn from that sacred 
fountain of right- and these great truths 
are enforced by all the sanctions which 
God has appended to his instructions to our 
race. Its discipline, the rules of which are 



28 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

before the public, is mild and sufficiently 
lenient, and at the same time firm and 
unbending when made to bear upon the 
erring, should they prove incorrigible to 
its milder efforts at reform. 

The penalties employed by the order, 
are moral and reformatory in their charac- 
ter ; affording sufficient time for affectionate 
efforts of brethren to recall the erring from 
his wanderings, and save to him a character 
put in jeopardy by uncalled for moral 
eccentricities, and at the same time afford 
to the mass of members the opportunity to 
exercise that forbearance and carefulness 
with respect to another's reputation, which 
must always produce a happy influence on 
the heart and life of those who are its sub- 
jects. But should the exercise of these 
friendly attentions to the erring prove una- 
vailing, he may be fined, reprimanded, or 
suspended; and should these fail of the 
effect they are designed to produce, the 
offending brother must endure the highest 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 29 

penalty known to the order, he must be 
expelled. 

The chamber of sickness, and the house 
of mourning, to which every member of 
this society must sooner or later be called, 
not as idle spectators of distress, but as 
those immediately interested in the scenes 
which are transpiring before them, cannot 
fail to have their influence on the heart, 
though it were iron. There they visit not 
a neighbor merely, but a partner who is in 
distress. But their partnership is not of 
that gross nature, as some have supposed, 
which relates to commerce and to gold, but 
one which is founded in view of the certain 
but dreaded hour which to one of their 
number has now arrived. They have been 
cultivating affections and sympathies for 
months, it may be years, which should fit 
them for the delicate and tender offices 
demanded by this time of trial ; and now 
the fearful hour has come, which makes one 
the subject of suffering, the others his inter- 

8* 



30 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

ested attendants. Under such circumstances, 
can the hardest heart be unaffected by the 
approach of those lofty moral sentiments 
which live and breathe in the chamber of 
adversity ? Can the hand called to admin- 
ister there be reached out, and the red 
heart, big with sympathy and affection, not 
be pulsating in its palm? Can the eye, 
though unused to weep, now fail to be 
moistened with the dew of generous sym- 
pathy ? It cannot be ; these are circum- 
stances which reduce the lion of our nature 
to the mildness of the lamb. Yet scenes 
like this are addressing the heart and the 
conscience of members of this institution 
daily. Nor do they cease with the hours of 
sickness, but speak from the low, narrow 
house appointed to all the living, to admon- 
ish survivors of their certain end ; they live 
and move in the faces and swelling bosoms 
of the wife and children, left behind by the 
departed. The moral they teach dies not 
away with the sound of the falling clods on 



31 



the coffin of him who is at rest, but prolong 
their echo with the memory of his name. 

Such is the eloquence which appeals 
directly* to our moral nature, in the designs 
and operations of this institution, and if 
they fail to impress the heart with proper 
sentiments, and commend to the life proper 
habits, we are at a loss to determine what 
means are within our reach, which can be 
be more effectual. 

Nearly allied to the object named above 
there is another. It is to relieve the wants 
of the needy ; not as many have supposed, 
the wants of those connected with this in- 
stitution only, but want wherever found, 
and we have the ability to extend to its 
subject aid, without distressing our families 
or ourselves. It is true, the funds of this 
institution are accumulated for a specific 
end, and they are to be religiously devoted 
to that end ; but this does not alter the 
principle, nor the extent of its application, 
as they are only the instrument, not the 



32 THE ODD FELLOWS* AMULET. 

end had in view. The practice to which 
this principle is reduced, is evidence that 
the principle enforced, and the object 
avowed, is not an empty pretence, but that 
it is interwoven, as far as possible, with the 
life of all connected with this society. For 
each has an amount which he is to contrib- 
ute each week, for a given purpose, as the 
price of his continuance with the establish- 
ment ; so that when the evidence of a tide 
of beneficence flowing from his soul ceases, 
he also ceases to be numbered among its 
members; as it is then evident that his 
heart is barren of those sentiments the soci- 
ety strives to inculcate ; and that, as a con- 
sequence, he is unfit for those kindly offices 
which are expected at his hands. 

We have already seen how the members 
of this order ar^ found with the afflicted 
and the distressed. They never meet with- 
out inquiry, if " any one knows of a sick 
brother, or a brother in distress." And 
when relief is demanded, it is controlled by 



33 

a most perfect system. It is not the case 
that to-day the afflicted is overwhelmed 
by a tide of attentions, and to-morrow be 
allowed to suffer a perfect dearth ; but, as 
regular as the succession of day and night, 
the countenances of his friends beam on 
him, with inquiries for his welfare, and the 
kindest offices for his comfort. Care and 
anxiety for attendants comes not down like 
corroding rust on the hearts of his friends ; 
rule appoints them, and law and affection 
secure their attendance. Nor does the 
office of such terminate with the member 
who suffers, but it is extended to the wants 
of his family ; should death strike down 
their prop, the members of this order inter- 
pose, to hold up those who were dependent 
on him for support. The widow and the 
children of the departed member are at- 
tended, relieved, and protected, by the 
father's friends, when he is no more. In 
this society the widow finds a friend, and 
the orphan a guardian, who will defend him 



34 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

in the inexperience and the waywardness 
of youth, one to protect him when vice and 
immorality lurk in ambush for their early 
victim. 

Such are the objects contemplated by 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows — 
such the principles which govern them in 
their intercourse with each other. None 
have ever appeared to controvert the law- 
fulness or worthiness of the avowed objects 
of the institution. They are of a nature 
too high, and of a character too sacred, for 
any to presume to invade them. Yet, while 
all acknowledge the excellence of the ob- 
jects, and even confess their paramount 
claims on society, they have not been want- 
ing who question, in all honesty, no doubt, 
the propriety of the means used for the 
attainment of the end contemplated. And 
some, doubtless, have even felt that the 
means were not only questionable but actu- 
ally criminal. Such, of course, while they 
have cherished objections, have not been 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 35 

backward in expressing them. Believing 
snch objections to have been cherished in 
honesty and candor, we shall proceed to an- 
swer them kindly, and we hope, to the mind 
enquiring after truth, conclusively. 



PART II. 



HAT there are those who ob- 
ject to this institution, is not 
to be urged as an objection 
to the institution itself, since 
we know of no society, or law, 
or general arrangement in the 
world, which has not now, or had 
at some time those who were un- 
friendly to it. So that the mere 
fact of there being objections, can be 
no objection in itself; it is merely 
conjecture, which only exists in the 
mind of the objector, independent of all 
specific data, and may or may not naturally 




37 



arise out of the subject, as a consequence of 
some one or more of its laws or principles 
of action; the whole is only conjectural, 
and can pass only as private opinion, 
without tangible or apparent evidence ; and 
yet we have heard this gravely urged as a 
good reason against this society. But, were 
we to admit this as a conclusive reason 
here, and thence adopt the principle, then 
by our own precedent we must relinquish 
our hold on the most firmly established and 
venerable truths, and allow, not only our 
own just opinions, but all truth, to be scat- 
tered to the winds, since there is not one, 
either law, custom, or organization, against 
which objections have not, at some time, 
been urged. The mere fact, therefore, of 
their being objections, should have no 
weight with any one, until they are drawn 
out in detail, and shown to arise legiti- 
mately out of the subject under considera- 
tion, and to lie certainly and truthfully 
against it. 

4 



38 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

With these remarks on the nature and 
weight of objections, when urged in opposi- 
tion to subjects, we will proceed to take up 
the specified objections usually urged in 
opposition to this institution, as far as they 
occur to us, and apply to each the test 
which truth will justify. 



"It mat) be nBtb for apolitical purposes." 

HE first tangible objection we 
meet, as we present this sub- 
ject to the public, is, "It may 
be used for political purposes, 
and it may thus endanger the 
state, or affect unfavorably the 
lawful interests of those who com- 
pose it," 
It would be a sufficient reply to such 
an objection, merely to announce the 
^fact, that the institution is composed 
of individuals of all political parties. Were 
they all of one of the great political divis- 
ions of the day, there might be some ground 
for the objection. But, it will be remem- 
bered, they are composed of men of every 
shade of political views, and who has ever 




40 



known the instance of an individual who 
has sacrificed his political relations to those 
of an ordinary character ? So far from be- 
ing capable of political uses is this institu- 
tion, that the thing is utterly impossible. 
Those who differ in political views, hold a 
mutual watch over each other, so that, any 
movement of the kind would be like an 
endeavor to raise an insurrection in the 
face of day, while surrounded with superior 
forces, who were placed to prevent the very 
thing the few were endeavoring to accom- 
plish. Were we even to admit that there 
are those now in this society, so base as to 
desire an achievement of the kind the 
objector supposes, or that there ever will be, 
still there will ever be found in the society 
itself, two classes, who would not only de- 
feat, but expose the attempt. 

The first class would be those who are 
their political opponents. These could 
never be so blinded as to succumb to 
any intrigue on the part of those to whom 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 41 

they were opposed in views not lawfully 
connected with the institution itself. The 
second class are those who have the good of 
the institution at heart, and who would 
never submit to see it used for any other 
than the great and worthy purposes for 
which it was established. One, if not both 
of these classes must exist in every Lodge ; 
for it certainly would involve greater credu- 
lity to suppose that all could be brought 
to a uniform way of thinking, where men 
are so decidedly opposed as in politics, 
and at the same time be corrupted and 
drawn off from their avowed object, than to 
suppose that a conservative principle has a 
place, in the form we name above, in the 
institution itself. But there is still another 
view, which sets the objection aside at once. 
It is this: the whole compact would dissolve 
by its own law, the moment it is given up 
to political or sectarian interests ; for that 
moment those who do it have invaded the 
charter under which they live, and have cut 

4* 



42 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

every bond which unites and holds them in 
fellowship, and by that act have absolved 
every member from his obligations to their 
jurisdiction; while the powers of such a 
lodge revert to the authority which at first 
granted them. And so sacred are these 
views, that no meeting for business is ever 
opened, without a caution to members to 
shun this rock, while heavy fines keep sen- 
tinel, to guard the enclosure against the 
entrance of those agents which, by their 
power, have shivered society into so many 
atoms, and rained upon it such bitterness 
and discord. The very elements, therefore, 
of which this great body is composed, utterly 
refute the objection opposed to it by the 
objector ; for his fears can never be realized 
until a radical change can be effected in the 
mental and moral constitution of men, and 
that change such an one as has, up to this 
time, in the history of the world, baffled all 
attempts of the most powerful cunning and 
designing of our race ; for the history of man 



43 



does not afford us an instance of success, 
where such an attempt has been made, even 
where the bonds which have united parties 
have been of the most terrible and binding 
character. Where the penalty visited upon 
the betrayer of his trust, has been death in 
its most terrible forms, the mind and the 
conscience have refused to be held captive 
by them. How, then, can it for a moment 
be supposed, that an institution holding its 
members together only by moral ties, can 
attempt the wide-spread mischief contem- 
plated by the objection, and not be detected 
at the very outset ? The very idea must be 
its own refutation. 

Men who would differ on political subjects 
out of the lodge-room, were such subjects 
admitted there, would do so in it, and on 
the other hand, those who agreed without 
its doors will do the same within: but if 
those who thus differ, contend with such 
interest for a mastery of views and a ma- 
jority of votes in all places, and at all times, 



44 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

can it for a moment be supposed that there 
is a place in the universe, where one party 
could advance its interests in the presence, 
and to the detriment of the other party, and 
they not only hold their peace, but concur 
in the very measures designed for their own 
defeat, and, as they believed, measures which 
would result in detriment to their own 
interest ? We repeat it, the idea is its own 
refutation. 

Having, as we think, answered this objec- 
tion conclusively, so far as relates to this 
particular society; a work which we have 
treated more at larg;e than we otherwise 
should, lest our opponents should say we had 
evaded the question at issue ; we wish now 
to enquire, what there is in the objection, 
after all, which can justify its claims to the 
importance which those who use it would 
seem to intimate that it possesses ? on what 
fact can those who urge it fix, to justify their 
apprehensions? where in history can they 
point to one solitary instance, where such 



45 



an institution has ever interfered with the 
affairs of justice, or with civil or political 
administration ? when have they ever figured 
in any revolution, or change of government ? 
We are aware, such things have been con- 
jectured and alleged, but where is the cred- 
ible proof? Can such a circumstance be 
found within the wide circle of historic 
record ? We are pointed to the Jesuits of 
the Papal Church, and the Jacobins of the 
French Revolution, but it should be remem- 
bered that these hold no parallel to the sub- 
ject under consideration. One of them is 
professedly a purely religious institution, 
designed only for one sect and one purpose, 
which is the propagation of the faiti. The 
other was purely political ; it was formed 
and used only for political purposes, and 
hence was composed of only one political 
party. 

The foundation of this objection is, there- 
fore, a mere vision, a baseless conjecture ; 
one which has been run^ over the land with 



46 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

the voice of a trumpet, until it is believed 
to be uncontrovertible, while there is not 
even a shadow of any thing but mere con- 
jecture for its support. Where what are 
termed secret societies have done harm, has 
been in the hands of a corrupted, intolerant, 
supreme church. The evidence of their 
harm elsewhere remains to be found and 
given to the world. But, says the objector, 
" your society has the power, and hence may 
do harm." Indeed ! So your son has the 
power, and hence he may become a mur- 
derer. What then? Why, according to 
this objection, and the argument which is 
hung upon it, you should hang him at once, 
of course ; and thereby, by possibility, you 
may save the life of some valuable citizen, 
and your son from the actual guilt of murder. 
Does common sense revolt at such a premise 
and conclusion 7 Then it objects to the 
course, pursued by the opposers of this sub- 
ject on this ground, for the cases are pre- 
cisely parallel in principle. 



HE, 

" Uott administer Hnlaroful ©atljs anb threaten 
Unlawful ijpntalfe." 

ANOTHER objection which we 
hear urged in opposition to 
this institution is, " You ad- 
minister unlawful oaths, and 
threaten unlawful penalties." 
To one who has passed 
through all the grades of this 
society, this objection cannot be 
other than novel! To one who, 
after having passed the threshold of 
a lodge-room, and ascended through 
all the regular gradations to the high- 
est honors of the institution, and enjoyed its 
beautiful moral and catholic teachings, 
drawn as they are from the wisdom of the 
inspired volume, and in his whole course has 
never heard of' an oath, nor even been made 




48 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

to tremble in view of a penalty more terri- 
ble than a fine, reprimand, suspension, or an 
expulsion ! We say for such an one to hear 
that he is bound by the most startling oaths, 
and surrounded by the apparition of the 
most terrible penalties ; it can be matter not 
only of deep surprise, but of unalloyed 
amusement; that is, if one can be amused 
by that absurd propensity of our nature, 
which is more ready to devour the most 
deformed absurdity, than it is to receive the 
truth in the spirit of true charity. 

The truth is, Odd Fellowship has no 
oaths, and threatens no penalties other than 
those of a moral nature. It has fixed its 
principles in the true philosophy of things ; 
that is, it founds the safety of its trusts in 
the value of that which is committed to the 
care of its members, well knowing that if 
their integrity will not hold the charge in- 
violate without, it is in vain that they bind 
them with the chains of oaths and deadly 
sanctions. 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 49 

Oaths and penalties would be out of 
character in such an institution. They 
would not be in keeping with its design, 
they would be a strange infringement on its 
harmony, and a contradiction of the doctrine 
of mutual confidence and trust the institu- 
tion is designed to promote among men. 

They could not, therefore, be introduced, 
without altering the complexion of the 
whole fabric, and essentially changing its 
design. We have already seen that moral 
culture is one great design of this associa- 
tion, and mutual trust and confidence is one 
of the means it has selected by which to 
promote the virtues of trustworthiness and 
integrity. So much for this objection ; one 
which, though strenuously urged, is with- 
out foundation, and without application 
when made to the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows. 



" &l)e JJoor cannot become Jtlemba* of tt." 

NOTHER objection which is 
often urged in opposition to 
this institution is, " The poor 
cannot become members of 
it." Such an objection, when 
rendered into good English, 
amounts to this : You do not ad- 
mit persons gratuitously to your 
association, and then take upon 
yourselves the obligation of support- 
ing them when want shall visit their 
dwelling, or sickness invade their per- 
son ; or, in other words, you do not propose 
to take all the poor in the land, and by your 
associated charity make them comfortable, 
by discharging a duty equally binding on 
the whole community ! If this be a proper 
objection, where in the wide world is the 




51 

association to which it does not apply ? If 
the force of this objection should be suffi- 
cient to overturn every fabric to which it 
applies with equal strength as to Odd Fel- 
lowship, where, in the whole compass of 
society, is one which could exist an hour ? 
" Your society is bad because the poor can- 
not join it!" That is, every institution 
which is not open to the poor man is bad, at 
least, is not good ; and therefore ought to 
fall ! But where have we ever heard of a 
stock company which has made a dividend 
to the poor, of an amount equal to those 
who had made investments for its success ? 
What banks, manufacturing companies, or 
stockholders in railroads, or insurance com- 
panies have ever done this ? What mercan- 
tile house has invited the whole or a part 
of any community, from which they have 
made their profits, to become equal sharers 
with the proprietors, in the avails of their 
labor, foresight, and frugality ? We doubt 
if such a thing was ever thought of, only in 



52 



connection with objections to Odd Fellow- 
ship ; a society, which, odd enough, and 
unlike any of these when any of their class 
become poor or fall into distress, proposes 
to look after its own members in the hour 
of adversity. It is perfectly well known, 
that the associations which are named above, 
are formed for the sole purpose of making 
money. Other advantages may arise out 
of their existence incidentally, and doubt- 
less do, but money is the avowed object 
which gives them being : and yet such asso- 
ciations are not only considered laudable 
but praiseworthy ; notwithstanding, not one 
poor man in the whole community owns 
a share in one of them, or ever receives a 
shilling of their profits, only as he renders 
an equivalent in labor, yet these associations 
are not only tolerated, but nursed in the 
bosom of every community ; and no note 
of objection is ever heard against them ; 
but when an association awakes in society, 
which contemplates the alleviation of dis- 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 53 

tress, the promotion of the social virtues, 
and the cultivation of those benevolent 
feelings so much needed in the world, then 
all is wrong, every motive is sinister, and 
the whole field of thought is ransacked for 
objections to overthrow it. But is this 
objection founded in truth ? Is it the case 
that poor men cannot become Odd Fellows ? 
Where is the man who knows the instance 
where a single individual has ever been 
rejected, because he was poor? So far 
from this being the case, is it not a glorious 
truth, that the great proportion of Odd Fel- 
lows are poor men ? A majority through 
the United States and Great Britain, it may 
be found, on investigation, are laborers. It 
is true, the institution is represented among 
statesmen, and all the professions, and 
among capitalists. Indeed, every class in 
community is represented in its halls ; and 
still we hazard nothing in saying, the mass 
of the society is made up of laboring men. 
What, then, becomes of the assertion, that 

5* 



54 

" the poor cannot become members." That 
paupers cannot, we freely admit ; but that 
able-bodied, moral, industrious men cannot, 
we strenuously deny, and we challenge the 
world to produce one such instance. 

" But he cannot procure the means which 
will enable him to become a member ! " 
Indeed, and can he procure land, or even 
the necessaries of life without the means ? 
Is he in want of no means to procure even 
the most ordinary articles which his exist- 
ence demands ? Can he attain to even the 
common privileges of society without means? 
And why make this institution an exception 
to all others, even to the one to which the 
objector belongs ? Why bind upon it bur- 
dens which neither it nor any other society 
could bear for an hour ? No society which 
makes pledges can redeem those pledges 
without the means ; hence every association 
has a price, which is to enable it to respond 
to those calls which, according to its con- 
stitution, may be made upon it 3 and he 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 55 

who has no stock in a partnership, has no 
claim on the appropriation of its avails. He, 
therefore, who has done nothing for this 
institution, has no claim on it, more than 
he who never paid a shilling for land, has a 
claim on the possessions of a neighbor ; or 
he who has no policy, and never had, has a 
right to look to an insurance company for 
indemnity for loss by fire. 



"©bfr jTdloiusljip is itmtteii in its ©^rations." 

NOTHER objector comes for- 
ward and very gravely tells 
us, that "Odd Fellowship is 
limited in its operations." — 
We hardly know what to 
make of this objection, it is 
so broad and sweeping in its 
declaration. If it means that 
there is partiality in its offices 
and offerings, then we are prepared 
to deny the allegation unequivocally, 
and appeal to the published consti- 
tution of the society, and to its practice, 
where no difference is or even can be 
known, either in letter or in fact, between 
what the world calls the most honorable, or 
the most obscure ; for there is no difference 
known in the distribution of the funds, or 




THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 57 

the offices of kindness, in the constitution. 
The high, the low, the rich, the poor, meet 
with the same respect, the same treatment. 
But if, as we suspect, the objector means to 
say, this institution does not bestow its aid 
indiscriminately on all the poor and needy 
through the land, or that Odd Fellows do 
not do as much for the needy as other 
citizens, why, then, we have something to 
say in reply. 

That Odd Fellows do not devote the 
funds of the institution to indiscriminate 
charity, is true ; for these funds are raised 
for a specific purpose, which is, to aid 
members and their families in the time of 
sickness and death. They could not, there- 
fore, apply them to any other purpose, 
without a violation of their published rules, 
unless all the members were agreed to such 
appropriation. And, even then, such an 
application of funds, to many minds, is of 
questionable expediency ; not because they 
have not the right, where all the proprie- 



58 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

tors are agreed, but on the ground of 
precedent, which may from time to time be 
urged, until, in the end, a kind of claim 
will be set up, which may in time lead the 
institution beyond the boundaries it has 
fixed for its government, and thus defeat, or 
cripple to a greater or less extent, its origi- 
nal design. 

But if the objector means to say that the 
members of this institution are not in the 
habit of doing as much for those in want as 
other members of society ; or, in other 
words, that this institution dries up the 
fountains of their general charity, then are 
we prepared to meet them in the issue. Is 
it not the case that members of this society 
pay as much to the legal calls upon them, 
as other men of the same pecuniary ability ? 
and in the occasional cases of distress which 
call for aid, are they more stinted in their 
gifts than other citizens ? We believe not : 
at any rate, we have never had the misfor- 
tune to meet with such an instance ; nor 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 59 

have we had the fortune, whether good or 
bad we do not pretend to say, to meet with 
the objector who would allege that he 
had ! he only thought such might be the 
tendency ! Now, we inquire, in all honesty, 
is this a just criterion of judgment ? is this 
a just ground of condemnation, or even of 
objection ? What may, by possibility, be 
the tendency ? Alas, if such be the ground 
of objection and condemnation, we know 
not what cause, however good, may not 
pass under the ban of condemnation. On 
this ground we will object to wealth, for it 
may, nay, it has led to aristocracy and 
oppression! We will object to religion or 
religious societies, because they, too, have 
led to bigotry and persecution ! We will 
object to learning, because in some instances 
it has conferred upon its possessor a power 
which is dangerous! And thus we might 
reason with reference to every subject, 
until we had vitiated and filled with poison 
the very elements of society. We will not 



60 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

name instances, which have come to our 
knowledge ; but let the objector go through 
many, we will not say all our large towns, 
and enquire who have been the most for- 
ward in alleviating the wants of the poor, 
and we happen to know that in several 
instances at least, he will be told that this 
very class of citizens, to whom he objects, 
because their beneficence is so circum- 
scribed, was the only class who, for whole 
winters remembered, or made any consider- 
able outlay for the benefit of the destitute. 
These were the men who sought, in their 
cellars and hovels, the hungry and famish- 
ing, and administered to their wants to the 
amount of several hundred dollars, in a 
single season. And this money was not 
taken from the funds of their Lodge, but 
contributed by individuals for this specific 
purpose. With such instances before us, 
and they are not few, will it be said that 
the operations of the order are circum- 
scribed ? They are circumscribed, indeed, 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 61 

to a certain extent, but it is by the same 
power which ever limits the benefactions of 
the kind-hearted every where — the extent 
of their ability. Such is the spirit, and 
feeling, and action, this order is ever des- 
tined to awake in the minds of its members ; 
it not only gives them the theory, but the 
practice of true benevolence. 



JJou mate ©isttnctions in SocktA." 

SUALLY when we arrive at 
this stage of the discussion 
on this subject, we hear the 
whisper of some kind friend 
who says, but "You create 
distinctions in society." 
We frankly acknowledge, 
could this objection be made to 
appear well founded, as urged 
against Odd Fellowship, it would 
have not a little weight in preju- 
dicing our mind, and fixing our hostility to 
the institution ; for one thing is certain, which 
is, that we need no more distinctions among 
us than we have at present. For who has 
not seen and lamented over the atoms into 
which communities are shivered ? "We have 
the distinction of letters, of wealth, of 




THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 63 

politics, and of religion ! with a thousand 
other nameless distinctions, which present 
the inhabitants of a single neighborhood 
knotted into groups, as though they were 
people from different quarters of the globe, 
or distinct races, each considering his neigh- 
bor inferior to himself. Now, if Odd Fel- 
lowship is about to add another class to the 
long catalogue which already exists, then 
we join with the objector to oppose its 
onward march. But is this the case ? On 
what ground do those different classes meet 
in the lodge-room ? 

They meet not only as fellow-citizens, 
but as men ; not as belonging to this party 
or that sect, but as heirs to the same ills 
and the same reverses which fall to the lot 
of our common race ; they come together, 
not to further this or that party design, 
but to prepare each other's mind for the 
trials to which each is so certainly liable, to 
heighten each other's enjoyment in social 
and fraternal intercourse, and to give assur- 



64 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

ances of aid and support when the dark 
whirlwind of life's reverses shall come 
sweeping down and overturn the fair fabric 
of earthly hopes, and when death shall 
smite his victim, and through him strike 
other hearts. At such a time they pledge 
to be there to bind up, and console, and 
alleviate the quivering and bleeding mem- 
bers. 

They meet to train their bands, not to 
battle with parties which may choose to put 
themselves in hostile array ; but to contend 
with the more subtle and hostile foe, disease, 
and to be prepared to reach out the hand 
of aid, and speak the word of sympathy to 
all who may need it — to snatch from the 
grave half its gloom, and from bereavement 
half its sting, by giving to the widow and 
the fatherless the assurance that they are 
not quite alone in this world of sighs. 
Such is their business, and it is thus they 
meet. In their assemblies is not heard the 
hoarse croaking of a purse-proud aristocracy 



65 

clamoring for a moneyed and an unworthy 
ascendency over their equals, and not unfre- 
quently their superiors. Here the high 
are made low, the low are elevated, until 
all occupy the one great level of our 
nature ; all are impressed with the great and 
truthful sentiment, that by nature "there is 
no difference." Such are the distinctions 
created by Odd Fellowship, and these only. 
Nor are they peculiar to the lodge-room : 
they extend to all the walk of members of 
the order. 

If such teaching and such practice are 
"creating distinctions in society," then is 
this order open to that objection ; if not, 
then it is clear of the charge. If breaking 
down the artificial lines which have been 
drawn by an arbitrary and a capricious 
hand be a virtue, then is this institution 
entitled to the praise of that virtue ; if such 
be a vice, then it must, yea, is even willing, 
to bear the odium of that vice. 



"Ucmrs is a Secret Institution." 

MOTHER, who contemplates 
this subject, appears confi- 
dently mailed in an objec- 
tion, which he is confident 
no weapon can penetrate, 
protected, as he believes 
himself, from crown to toe, he 
looks defiance as he proclaims, 
like a true knight pronouncing 
his challenge, "Yours is a secret 
institution." 

We are aware that this objection 
is most strenuously and frequently urged 
against this institution, we are unable 
however, to see the force of such an objec- 
tion, unless it proceeds upon this principle, 
that all which is secret must necessarily be 
suspicious ! And we believe this is the 




THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 67 

light in which this subject is usually viewed 
by those who object to secrecy in an insti- 
tution. As this objection is considered one 
of considerable importance, by those who 
urge it, and by many is doubtless advanced 
as unanswerable, we propose to view it in 
all the lights and aspects in which it may 
occur to our mind, and so far as we are 
capable of doing it, furnish an answer to 
the honest enquirer after truth on this sub- 
ject ; and where we fail in this, we may 
succeed at least in giving to our opposers 
an apology for our usages. 

What, then, is meant by secrecy, as 
applied to the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows ? It is important that we under- 
stand what the objector means, as the 
objection, undefined, is one of immense 
latitude. Does he mean to afnrm that the 
public are unacquainted with the fact of 
who are members; that this is one of the 
unrevealed and unrevealable features of the 
institution ? if so, a greater mistake was 



68 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

never labored under by any toiling mind, 
for this is a fact which none have ever 
attempted to disguise. Who are, and who 
are not members all have a right to know, 
and may know by simply making the in- 
quiry. So that the charge of secrecy can- 
not attach to us in this respect. Does the 
objection apply to the place of meeting ? 
This cannot be, for wherever there is a 
lodge, the place where it meets is, or may 
be known to all; and is often visited by 
all classes of citizens : here, therefore, is 
no secret. Does it relate to the time of 
meeting ? This cannot be : since every 
lodge, in published documents which it 
gives to the world, fixes the time of its 
meeting for the entire year, not only the 
day in the week, but the hour when they 
may be found in session. So that secrecy 
cannot be charged here. Does it relate to 
the rules which govern them in their meet- 
ings ? Assuredly, this will not be charged, 
for these are made public. And we may 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 69 

say the order is anxious, even more anxious 
that the public should have these papers 
and the information they contain, than they 
are to avail themselves of them. In this 
instance, therefore, the charge of secrecy is 
not sustained. Can it be said the objects of 
the institution are secret ? We know not 
with what propriety this can be charged, 
for these are openly avowed by every 
member, and by several periodicals, which 
are published for the institution ; and are 
thrown broad-cast over the continent. So 
the charge is not applicable in this instance. 
And will the charge of secrecy hold in 
relation to the general interests of the insti- 
tution ? We apprehend not ; for we are 
confident, that so far as general arrange- 
ment, number of lodges, number of mem- 
bers, amount of receipts and expenditures, 
and the condition of the order, in each state 
in this Union, is concerned, no society pub- 
lishes fuller statistical reports than this soci- 
ety ; and they are so published as to be open 



70 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

to the inspection of all persons who will take 
the trouble to peruse them. And beyond 
all this, the transactions of their great cen- 
tral bodies are open to general inspection ! 
Now, we inquire, what does any other soci- 
ety, in this or any other country, more than 
this, to inform the world of its doings ? In 
all this we have not found a place for the 
charge of secrecy ! Where, then, are we 
to find room for such a charge ? If it be 
levelled now, let it aim at a definite point, 
then we can plead to it with certainty. 

"But you have some things connected 
with your society, which you do not make 
public ! " Indeed ! And this is what you 
charge on this institution as sufficient to 
give it character ; this is enough to make it 
a secret society, because it has some things 
which it will not tell the world ! Now, if 
this be secrecy, properly so called, we have 
multitudes of secret societies ; indeed, they 
make up the mass of society in which we 
live ! If the fact that a society or an organ- 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 71 

ization has some things which may be con- 
sidered its own peculiar property, may be 
charged upon it as secrecy, why, then, we 
venture little in the position, that society is 
the keystone to the great arch on which all 
good society rests. 

Let us for a little time study this subject 
of secrecy so much is said about, as con- 
nected with general society. Is there noth- 
ing in families, nothing in their relations 
and government, which would be highly 
improper to be known abroad ; matters 
which should be considered their own prop- 
erty, and with which those who Live around 
them have no concern, but which, were they 
known, would be a torpedo in the bosom of 
a neighborhood before peaceful, and an 
alarming annoyance to those who were their 
innocent authors ? All, who know any 
thing of the internal arrangement of families, 
know this to be the case ; and hence the 
verdict of reprobation which the public and 
Divine Kevelation has rendered so unspar- 



72 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

ingly against all tattlers and tale-bearers ! 
We say this verdict is rendered on a univer- 
sal acknowledgment of the rectitude of 
individual claims on what concerns them 
alone. And so firmly is this principle fixed 
in the mind of society, that the dependant 
who would wantonly invade it, could not 
hold his or her place an hour ; and with the 
recommendation of such a character, would 
fail to find place or employment in any well 
regulated or even good society. And that 
citizen, no matter how worthy he may be in 
other respects, if possessing this single taint, 
is considered an enemy to the peace of 
society, and as a leper, is cast from its 
bosom. 

Having reached this first step in the 
argument, we are now prepared to advance 
to another. It is well known that assistants 
are employed by every commercial house. 
Now, suppose these were to give to the 
public the secrets committed to their trust 
by their employers, and this of necessity, 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 73 

for they must understand the details exist- 
ing between the establishment and those 
indebted to it, and to a certain extent the 
financial state of the concern : we say, 
suppose they were to give these, with a key 
to all marks employed by the house they 
serve, to the world, does any man in the 
least acquainted with business need to be 
told the result ? 

Certainly such a course could not fail to 
awaken distrust, suspicion, the wreck of 
confidence, the overthrow of hopes, and the 
failure of establishments which, had they 
been left to work themselves clear of their 
embarrassments as they might have done, 
embarrassments inseparable from business, 
would have come up out of the wilderness 
crowned with honesty and abundance. But, 
through the betrayal of one little trust, one 
secret, dismay, oppression, heart-burnings, 
and a thousand nameless ills have stalked 
through a peaceful and prosperous country, 
overthrowing all that was fair, making their 



74 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

cruel blades drunk with the blasted hopes 
of multitudes, and the spirit of friendship 
in which they had lived. Such is not specu- 
lation, but histpry ; and few there are 
engaged in business, who might not attain 
the same end, by the same process. What 
has befallen one man, may befall another ; 
and all through the betrayal of one secret 
apparently trifling ! The security of indi- 
viduals, and of society, depends on the 
safety of such trusts. We believe there is 
not one lover of society, who would have 
such secrets fewer, or less sacredly kept. 

Let us take another instance, connected 
with the ordinary affairs of society, as an 
illustration of this principle. Every bank 
has connected with it a board of directors, 
who usually meet two or three times each 
week, to counsel and advise with other 
officers of the institution, for its safety and 
success. And it is perfectly well understood, 
that the inquiry with them is not, whether 
this or that man needs their aid, but whether 



75 

it will be safe and profitable for tliem to 
extend it to him. Now, no one can say 
that these persons have not a right, we may 
say, a moral right, to guard in this way their 
own property, and to counsel on the safety 
or hazard of a proposed investment ; yet 
who will say that it would be to their credit 
or advantage, or to the credit or advantage 
of the applicant, or for the good of society, 
that all should transpire which occurs in 
their committee-room ? Although the busi- 
ness of these men holds such an intimate 
relation to the vital interests of so many 
persons around us, can we pretend to say, 
either that we know all that is said and done 
when they are together, or that we have 
even a right to know ? Here we have to all 
intents and purposes another secret society, 
one intimately connected with our pros- 
perity, whether we will or no, and yet we 
hear no note of complaint against it on this 
ground ! and why ? why, because the good 
sense of the world acknowledges the neces- 



76 



sity of its secrecy, and of course its right to 
be so. 

We have found the principle of secrecy, 
to a certain extent, connected with our do- 
mestic, commercial, and moneyed relations; 
and that such a state of things was neces- 
sary for the good of individuals as well as- 
for the safety of the great body of society ; 
let us now see if the same necessity exists 
in connection with any or all of the pro- 
fessions. 

How is it with the physician ; could he 
find employment, were he to divulge all 
which arises in the course of his practice ? 
He may make such development it is true, 
but he may do it only to the initiated, to 
those who are equally bound with himself 
to keep the trust inviolate, or in other 
words, to those of his own profession. 
Others may not, they ought not, to know 
these things ; they are the property of his 
patient, entrusted to his care, and he is 
responsible for their safe keeping. Indeed, 



77 



it is questionable whether he has a right to 
communicate all even to his own profession ; 
whether there are not many things which 
he holds, that should never pass beyond the 
treasury of his own mind. 

He should, he must be secret, for he holds 
treasures which are invaluable to those who 
have, from necessity, entrusted them to his 
care, but which could not, if given to the 
world, enhance the happiness of any one in 
the least. To the rightful proprietor it is 
above price, to all others it is worthless. 

We repeat, therefore, he is bound to be 
secret ; and if he is not, a just reprobation 
and a want of bread, will be the righteous 
penalty which he must endure. 

Then, again, take the legal profession. 
What client would submit the details of 
his case to counsel, with the assurance that 
the whole would be given to the public ear ? 
Or what class of men exist who would 
employ one as counsel, even in the most 
trifling cause, who was in the habit of 



78 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

treating the confidence of his clients in such 
a way? It would be in vain such a man 
might plead scruples of conscience on the 
subject of secrecy r , and an unwillingness to 
keep what he knew from society ; the good 
sense of that very society would feel itself 
abused by the very plea made in justifica- 
tion of a sickly recreancy, and would hurl 
such a being from its circle, as a moral 
pestilence which all ought to dread. 

The clergyman in the prosecution of his 
duties not unfrequently finds himself in the 
same condition. 

He and his officers are frequently made 
the involuntary treasurers of facts and cir- 
cumstances, which it would be worse than 
cruel for them to unfold to the public ; not 
on the account of a single individual, but 
for the sake of parties who are innocent and 
unoffending, yet who must be- more or less 
unfavorably affected by the circumstances. 
We are not under the necessity of suppos- 
ing these to be circumstances of what the 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 79 

world calls crime ; they might consider 
them matters of indifference, and some 
even as praise-worthy, and still they might, 
if made public, essentially affect the happi- 
ness of many : while, as there is no neces- 
sity that they should transpire, and no real 
good could result from it, their divulgence 
would be a wanton trifling with the feelings 
and interests of others. Such is but a cur- 
sory glance of the secrecy which not a few, 
but all enjoin upon the professions; which 
not only choice, but necessity demands they 
should keep locked up in their own breasts. 
And so necessary is this same hated feature 
of secrecy considered, that provision is made 
for it almost every where ! No grand jury is 
empanelled, without being solemnly sworn 
to keep secret what transpires in the jury- 
room. No ecclesiastical body meets, which 
does not reserve to itself the right to clear 
its galleries, and transact business by itself, 
or in other words, in secret. Every legisla- 
tive body has the same rule, and a betrayal 



80 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

of the trust imposed in secret session, in- 
volves a penalty of no less magnitude than 
expulsion. 

The senate chamber of each state, and 
of the United States, is guarded by the same 
sanctions. The cabinet of each governor, 
and of the President of this Union, is to all 
intents and purposes a secret society; and 
so they are in every government under the 
heavens. All diplomatic proceedings are 
transacted in secret. While the prosecution 
of war could never be successful, without 
the incorporation of the feature of secrecy. 
Science, though apparently open to all, is 
secret ; and he who would enjoy the bliss of 
her mysteries, must pay, in time and money, 
the price of membership, and endure the 
slow and painful process of initiation. 

Nature is secret ; and though man, for 
six thousand years, has been endeavoring 
to possess himself of her hidden treasures, 
up to this hour they have eluded his re- 
search. 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 81 

At the outset, he knew that matter pos- 
sessed form, extension, and divisibility ; he 
knows that now, and but little more ; the 
essence ever has, and perhaps ever will, bid 
defiance to his investigation. This, with 
the ten thousand means by which nature 
carries on her stupendous processes of pro- 
duction and reproduction, ever has been, 
and is now, to the human mind, one vast 
and unexplored wilderness. And above the 
whole is enthroned the Infinite, whose ways 
are in the deep, and whose chariot is the 
whirlwind, whose throne inhabiteth justice 
and judgment ; He who spake and it was 
done, who commanded and it stood fast ; He 
who hath his secret place. Tell me, man, 
canst thou, by searching, find Him out ? 
And wilt thou say still, that secrecy wraps 
in its dark folds iniquity, and is suspicious ? 
But if this be too mighty for thee, then go 
and seek for the springs of thy own being ; 
grasp, if thou canst, the life of the active 
spirit within thee, trace the path of its flight, 



82 



and tell us how it records the burning 
thought it gathers ia its wanderings. Thou 
canst not ! Then thou, too, art secret ! and 
is thy inmost being to be suspected because 
thou knowest it not ? 

We find secrecy everywhere. 

As it exists in society, we can trace some 
reason, some necessity for that existence ; in 
nature we cannot, but we know it is there ; 
and our faith proclaims to us that it is right. 
We are not, therefore the less happy, be- 
cause of the existence of many things with 
which we are not acquainted. The truth 
is, there is, there has been, and there ever 
will be secrecy in the world, and among 
men ; and it is now complained of, only be- 
cause mischief has been done under its 
cloak. But if every subject which has 
furnished a covering for crime, is to be in- 
discriminately condemned on that account, 
then we have no protection for the most 
sacred of all subjects, nor for the most ele- 
vated virtues. The knaves most to be 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 



dreaded, are those who " Steal the livery of 
heaven to serve the devil in." And under 
the cloak of a God-inspired religion, what 
crimes, wdiat cruelties have not been perpe- 
trated. It is not, therefore, in the use, but 
in the abuse of these privileges, that w T e 
ought to complain ; and if we understand 
the charity aright w r hich the Scriptures 
inculcate, w T e have no more right to accuse 
our neighbor who uses his privilege of 
secrecy, of being sinister in his design, than 
we have to accuse him of the same motive 
in becoming religious, or in embracing any 
one of the great moral virtues ; for in either 
instance the heart is hid from us, and our 
only safe criterion of judgment is by the 
fruit one produces after his profession. 

If men become w^orse after becoming 
connected with these institutions, if this is 
the general tendency, or if a majority of 
those bearing such relation become w r orse, 
then condemn the institution, as one which 
exerts an unhappy influence. But if these 



84 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

aberrations are only occasional, if they are 
not more frequent here than they are in 
other more sacred and authoritative insti- 
tutions, then candor requires that we place 
them to the credit, not of a bad institution 
and a defective discipline, but to a bad 
heart. We come now to inquire to what 
extent, and why Odd Fellowship is a secret 
institution. 

We have already seen that its secrets 
could not relate to who are members, their 
place of meeting, their time of meeting, 
their constitution, by-laws, business, or ob- 
ject ; that it could not relate to the great 
central bodies which hold jurisdiction over 
the whole, for all these are matters of noto- 
riety, which it is the wish of the institution 
to give to the world. In what sense, then, 
is Odd Fellowism secret ? It is to this in- 
quiry we now propose to give an answer ; 
not that we intend to tell what the secret is, 
but to state the points at which it is secret. 
Odd Fellows are required to be secret, in the 



85 



first place, so far as relates to persons who 
propose to become members of the order. 

The reason of this is, the character of 
each candidate mnst be subject to the inves- 
tigation of a committee appointed for that 
purpose, who must report to the lodge the 
result of their investigations ; and the pre- 
caution of secrecy is taken, so that in case 
the report of that committee should prove 
unfavorable, and the applicant be rejected, 
he might suffer no loss, but occupy the same 
position in society he did before his appli- 
cation. The injunction of secrecy, in this 
instance, is to protect the applicant, not our- 
selves. The second feature of the institu- 
tion which involves secrecy, relates to the 
fact whether persons we do not know are 
members or not. 

This institution is designed to be one the 
world over ; and to give its assistance not 
only in the chamber of sickness, and to 
those who reside in our immediate vicinity, 
but to the virtuous needy wherever found. 



86 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

When such present themselves for sym- 
pathy or aid, the inquiry is not, to what 
nation does the applicant belong, but is 
he what he claims to be? is he in want? 
These • questions being properly answered, 
his wants are redressed, not as a charity, 
but as a debt. It must be obvious to 
every one, therefore, that such an individ- 
ual should be furnished with a true title to 
what he claims. If he is a true man, he 
has such a title ; and this title is unknown 
to all except the members of this order. 

This, in a word, is their great secret. 
This, it is true, might have been given on 
paper, it might have been written ; in which 
case it is equally true, it might be stolen, 
or counterfeited, or lost. Hence it was 
thought preferable to furnish members with 
a title that should speak a language which 
was the same everywhere, and which could 
be used in all nations, and at the same time 
be of a character to defy counterfeiting, and 
the encroachment of robbers, or the perils 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 87 

of shipwreck : a title w r hich, while reason 
holds her dominion over the nian, might 
ever be present with him. To accomplish 
this, each member is furnished with pass- 
words and signs which cannot be mistaken. 
And as the several ranks attained in the 
order entitles the member to more or less 
for his support in time of w r ant, he is by 
this means enabled to decide the fact and 
the amount of his claims beyond a doubt. 
He holds by the power of a word his title, 
his claim, his right upon strangers for their 
offices of kindness and appropriations, not 
as a common beggar, but as a joint pro- 
prietor with them in the institution to 
which they mutually belong. His secret is, 
therefore, his property, his title-deed, his 
policy of insurance. And no man has any 
more right to claim that secret, nor has he 
any better title to it, than he has to claim 
for his own either of the documents named 
above ; it is the property of its possessor, 
widen he had the same right to purchase as 



88 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

any other property ; and having paid for it 
his money he is protected in its possession, 
by the same law which protects him in the 
possession of other property. 

The fact of the title existing only in a 
sign, or a word, in a moral point of view at 
least, can make no difference, so long as it 
guarantees to him certain valuable consider- 
ations, under given circumstances. 

Such is the secrecy of Odd Fellowism ! 
no more, no less ! Wherein is it more 
secret than most of the institutions around 
us, on which no one has ever thought to 
lay such a charge ; and wherein would 
society be bettered were this objectionable 
feature, which runs through its length and 
breadth, to be abolished ? Wherein, indeed, 
would it not be made almost infinitely 
worse ? Who, were there no secret cement, 
no hidden cohesive power to resist the re- 
pelling influences, which are constantly act- 
ing upon it, and which hold it together, 
would be bail for its stability and present 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 89 

order ? Let him that would, imagine, if he 
please, for one moment, such a society ! a 
society stripped of all secrecy ! where every 
thought and every word of every individual 
should be laid open to the day — the con- 
versation of every circle should be simul- 
taneously reported to all ears — the business 
of every house, and every man, with their 
wishes and designs, all accurately mapped to 
every eye — the counsels of every chamber 
forced upon the attention of every individ- 
ual person. What is accruing in the hovel, 
and in the palace — in the prison, and on 
the gallows — in the mechanic-shop, and in 
the halls of legislation — in the field, and 
in the bed-chamber — in the cell of the 
recluse, and in the banqueting halls of 
affluence — with the sick, and with the 
well — in the street, and in the kitchen — 
in the abodes of moping ignorance, and 
in the halls of science — in the place of 
mirth, and in the church of God. Suppose 



90 



he were gifted to see and know all this, as 
he certainly would have been had the Infi- 
nite designed there should be nothing secret 
in this world, by some kind of pre-science, 
and yet be endowed with all the sensibilities 
which our nature now possesses ; and would 
he desire to live in such a society ? Could 
he survive such frightful disclosures for a 
single day ? 

And yet, strange as it may appear, this 
is what those contend for, in effect, who 
denounce all which is secret, or what is the 
same thing, all which they do not know, as 
suspicious. Yet, such is the appalling chaos 
to which the objectors to secrecy, if their 
views were carried to their legitimate re- 
sults, would hurl society. For, as relates 
to the objection, what is applicable to a 
society composed of a few, is equally appli- 
cable to an individual, or to a million ; or 
if there be any difference, the preference is 
to be given to the many, for as numbers 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 91 

increase, the power to do mischief is dimin- 
ished ; as the success of an effort to corrupt, 
deceive, or control for evil becomes less as 
there are more minds to act upon ; and 
hence, the chances of detection will become 
greater in proportion to numbers. 



"S>ou bo not abrnit % £aii*0." 

HEN we arrive at this stage 
of our investigations of this 
subject, we often hear a 
dulcet voice mingling with 
the general cry against us, 
and if we interpret rightly 
its mellow articulation, it says : 
"You do not admit the ladies 
into your institution." 
By this, we suppose the objector 
means to carry the idea that the 
institution is eminently selfish, being 
designed exclusively for the entertainment, 
convenience, and protection of the men ! 
But is this the case, according to the ex- 
position we have given above ? Or does 
the objector mean to say, that because the 
ladies are not permitted to participate in 




93 

the active work of a lodge-room, they 
therefore derive no advantage from the 
results of that work? Does he mean to 
say, because the fair daughters of our good 
republic are not compelled to follow" the 
plough, they, as a consequence, receive 
none of the blessings of the harvest, which 
a thousand glad voices join in shouting 
home ? That because they are not com- 
pelled to tread the slippery shrouds, or 
climb the giddy mast, or toil behind the 
counter, or in the counting-room, they 
therefore enjoy none of the blessings of 
commerce ? That because they burn not 
life away over tomes of legal treasure, 
they have none of the protection of law ? 
That because they do not exhaust their 
being in the fatigues of politics and the 
toils of legislation, that therefore they are 
not partakers in the blessings of civiliza- 
tion ? 

If the female, though she does not 
participate in the busy cares of these and 



94 



a thousand other callings, and knows but 
little, perhaps nothing, of their details, is 
nevertheless a partaker of their fruits, 
why shall it be said she enjoys no advan- 
tages from, nay, that she is rejected by Odd 
Fellowship, because forsooth it is not made 
an exception to many other institutions 
with which we are surrounded? Is the 
fact that ladies are not admitted to the 
privilege of the ballot box, or to the 
offices of state, an imputation on her in- 
tellect or integrity, or is it not rather out 
of respect to her character, and with a 
view to pay a high compliment to her 
native modesty, and to venerate the posi- 
tion in which God in his wisdom has 
placed her, that her relations in these 
respects are as they are ? 

Let not that be charged on Odd Fel- 
lowism as a crime, which in general society 
is looked upon as a virtue ; let it not be 
said that when it pays the highest com- 
pliment in its power to the fairest portion 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 95 

of the Divine creation, it is mantling loved 
ones with insult. Females are not de- 
barred the lodge-room, because they have 
not the capacity or the integrity necessary 
for its business. 

We indignantly repel such a charge ; but , 
for the same reason that would not allow 
us to put her in any other office or stern 
duty, which nature, and the God of nature, 
when he fixed the offices devolving upon 
the respective sexes, designed for man, and 
for which He in a peculiar manner fitted 
him. 

But if the objector intends to assert that 
the ladies have no interest in the existence 
of this association, we must inform him that 
here he is again in fault, and that he lias 
unfortunately mistaken the great design 
of this institution. Were it not for our 
mothers, our wives, our sisters and daugh- 
ters, this association would lose half its 
power to exist — it even may be doubted 
whether it would exist at all. Has the 



96 



mother or sister no interest, when the son 
or brother is in a distant land, in the fact 
whether he be friendless and alone, whether 
he dwells in solitude or in society ? Is 
there no sweet cordial to the heart, in the 
knowledge that a far-off child, or brother, 
though in the land of strangers, and far 
from the tenderest of all sympathy, that of 
a mother's or sister's bosom, is yet where 
the tide of kindness springs up to cool a 
fevered brow, and allay the pain of those 
throbbing temples ? Let those who have 
no sympathy with such a case, go and ask 
of those whose fondest hopes lie buried in 
distant lands ; ask such not of the anguish 
of separation, for that is ever sufficiently 
keen, even under the most mitigated cir- 
cumstances ; but of the agony arising from 
the thought of one so near the heart, one 
cradled on the bosom of love, one who had 
been guarded from the first morning which 
heralded his being, with all the tenderness 
a mother's heart knew how to lavish upon 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 97 

it : ask, we say, of trie agony which rent 
that spirit at the thought that such a loved 
one suffered and died alone ; that in the 
furnace of consuming fever, his chamber 
was cheered by day only by the stillness 
of solitude, by night by the dying rush- 
light, which threw only a tomb-like gloom 
through the place where he lay ; that no 
mother's or sister's hand was there to smooth 
the pillow pressed by that aching head, no 
sympathetic mind to suggest a ray of hope, 
or anticipate a want, or tenderly respond 
to calls made audible by suffering, no affec- 
tionate attention to mark, with all the pre- 
cision of tenderness, the casual words which 
fell from his parched and broken lips ; that 
there was no ear to listen to the expres- 
sions of disordered reason, as strong affec- 
tion compelled it, even when dethroned, 
to think of home and those dear as itself 
who lingered at its hearth-stone ; none to 
mark the affectionate action, and words of 
home, when reason was again brought back 



98 . THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

to her accustomed seat to whisper her last 
adieus to the world from which she was 
passing away. ! could I have been 
there, exclaims that parent, that sister, or 
the best loved child, to have found a last 
recognition, to have received but one word, 
one adieu ; or, could I only know even 
that he was attended gently and kindly, 
how would such an assurance crown with 
flowers the arrow which now penetrates 
my heart. "Would it be no solace, no bliss 
to woman, under such circumstances, to 
know that the gentle and affectionate 
offices proposed by Odd Fellowship were 
not forgotten, that they fell like a fra- 
grant dew around that pillow, and were a 
cloudless sunshine on the path of that 
world's pilgrim to light him down to the 
grave. Or when sickness lays its power 
upon the husband and the sire, has woman 
no comfort in the daily visits of those 
whose covenant obligations bring them to 
her home of affliction, who pour words 



99 



of tenderness and encouragement into her 
ear, who affectionately minister, as those 
who feel their obligation, to her seeming 
wants, who tell her that the afflicted one 
is not only a neighbor but a brother ? Is 
it no solace to her heart, to know that 
there are those who will mingle their 
tears with hers in the hour of bereave- 
ment; who, when the cherished of her 
soul is laid low in his narrow and dream- 
less bed, will lay the clods lightly on his 
bosom, which is now still forever; who 
will so draw the curtain over the commerce 
of the grave, as that she shall not be made 
to feel, by the visits of the sexton and the 
undertaker, that the world makes merchan- 
dise of her affliction ? Has woman no 
interest in those who, in her widowed 
loneliness, wrap in the mantle of their 
protection her children, when life's adverse 
whirlwind sweeps down upon them ? No 
interest in those who will lead her father- 



100 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

less son or daughter along the path of 
learning, and teach their inexperienced 
feet to shun the pit of ruin which lies 
hid in their way ? Woman no interest 
in a union which takes those dearest to 
her by the hand, and leads them away 
from the vicious enticements around them ; 
which takes such from obscure retreats, and 
gives them a right, and learns them to min- 
gle in society as men ? And can it be said 
that woman has no interest in all this ? 
It is true, Odd Fellowship while it makes 
such provision for her, does not ask woman 
to participate in the trials and embarrass- 
ments of its merely business scenes; but 
is she therefore excluded from all partici- 
pation in the application of its means of 
relief? By no means, for while stronger 
arms prepare the means and concert the 
plans of relief, they frequently leave to 
woman's affectionate nature and sympa- 
thetic heart, to her modest, unobtrusive 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 101 

tenderness, the application of what has 
been provided for the comfort and cheer- 
ing of the needy, the suffering, and the 
friendless. Such is the relation the ladies 
hold to this institution, such its relation 
to them and to their interests. * In the 
language of an eloquent and famed advo- 
cate of this cause, u Odd Fellowship is not 
designed to bring angels down, but to raise 
men up to heaven." 

Beyond these, we know not what ad- 
vantages there are which woman could 
enjoy by being a member of this associ- 
ation. For, now, she directly or indirectly, 
inherits all its gifts, and enjoys its moral 
and social influences; what more could she 
receive as a compensation, were she loaded 
with the cares incident to the active busi- 
ness of the association ? She could enjoy 
none whatever, and it is for this reason 
she is not recognized as an active partici- 
pant in its merely business meetings. In 

9* 



102 



this, whether right or wrong, the order 
has conformed to the good sense and 
fashion of the world. If this practice be 
wrong, why, then, the custom of the world 
is wrong. Reform that in this respect and 
you will reform us. 



vnOo 

Stye <&t)txn\) cmb ItUligton comx % mtyolt 
®rotmb." 

T is usually a very easy mat- 
ter to find fault and start ob- 
jections, to any subject, much 
more so than to obviate them ; 
and those who controvert this 
subject seem to be aware of 
the fact : accordingly, when we 
arrive at this stage of the con- 
troversy, we are called upon to 
meet this objection, "The church 
and religion cover the whole 
ground." The conclusion drawn from 
which appears to be this : therefore, 
there is no necessity for such an insti- 
tution as the one of which you are the 
advocate. No one can hold the church in 
greater veneration than we do; no one^e 




104 THE ODD FELLOWS* AMULET. 

think, can desire to exalt it more ; for 
few are more indebted to it than our- 
self. We feel assured that the church, 
the glorious church which the Saviour 
purchased with his own blood, is not, 
nor can it be second to any subject or 
any interest this side of heaven. We, 
therefore, accord most cheerfully with the 
proposition, " that the church," by which 
we mean all Christians, " covers the whole 
ground." We say we. mean all Christians, 
when we say the church ; for being Chris- 
tians, they hold the doctrines of the Bible, 
which are able, nay, they have made them 
wise unto salvation. The Bible inculcates 
every possible virtue ; hence, the church, 
which is made such through embracing the 
Bible, must embrace every possible virtue. 
But while we most cheerfully accord with 
the proposition, we must beg leave to dis- 
sent from the conclusion the objector draws 
from it ; for in assenting to that, we should 
be compelled to depart from the wholesome 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 105 

usages of the church, and contradict the 
true philosophy of our being. Were we 
to adopt the conclusion of the objector, 
we must renounce all distinct organizations 
altogether, and have but one great organ- 
ization, and that the church ; and that 
must not exist as now, it must be a unit ; 
for each distinct communion would say, 
the Bible favors me, and you, therefore, 
are superfluous. At least, it would be said 
of usages which have no direct Scripture 
sanction, which are innocent in themselves, 
and are adopted as matters of convenience, 
or of necessity, for the time, that this or 
that not having a Scripture sanction must 
be relinquished. While some, even, would 
strike out from the wholesome articles of 
religion every rule of morality, and every 
exponent of Christian duty, alleging that 
the simple text is enough to govern men, 
as it is from this alone that we derive our 
knowledge of duty ; and that any part, 
attached by human hands, is a wanton 



106 THE ODD FELLOWS* AMULET. 

invasion of religion : for this, with the 
heaven-given spirit speaking through it, is 
enough to govern Christians. They would 
say, he who hath this rule, and is a Chris- 
tian, needeth no other. There would be 
no allowance made for the ignorance and 
prejudices of men, whose views and feel- 
ings are often capricious and varying, and 
who, even after conversion, need to be 
schooled by Wholesome rules and restraints 
into the practice of Christian virtues, which 
they have too long opposed and rejected. 
But, admitting the truth of the objector's 
conclusion, we must relinquish our organ- 
izations for the promotion of knowledge ; 
and sabbath schools, tract societies, tem- 
perance societies, colonization societies, 
Bible societies, education societies, hu- 
mane societies, and every other class of 
benevolent organizations formed for the 
good of the world, because religion covers 
the whole ground. 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 107 

For seventeen centuries of the Christian 
era. the world adopted this creed, and what 
was the consequence ? Why, the pall of a 
starless night rested on all moral subjects, 
and moral death rioted in the darkness, not 
only on the bodies, but on the intellect and 
on the souls of men. For half a century, 
these societies have existed and operated ; 
and be it said to their boundless praise, in 
that time more has been clone to redeem 
the world from the power of sin and misery, 
than in the seventeen ages which preceded 
them ! But let us not be understood as 
asserting that these societies have arisen bv 
an inherent power, or that they have oper- 
ated by an internal life peculiarly their own. 
We mean to say no such thing; but we 
intend to say this : religion has originated 
them, religion has carried them forward, 
religion has imparted to them the vital 
principle, and they are her highest encomi- 
ums, for they are the glittering waymarks 
which report her progress in the world. 



108 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

The conclusion of the objector would not 
only obliterate these portents of a religious 
day to our earth, but it would strike with 
fearful force at the root of all civil govern- 
ment, scattering to the winds the wholesome 
laws and restraints which now guard the 
interests of society. For if religion covers 
the whole ground, then our whole system 
of legislation and civil jurisprudence is, to 
say the least, superfluous, and ought to be 
abolished, and the whole world fall back 
under the Theocracy which characterized 
the early history of the Jews. Such would 
be the result of such a conclusion ; for if 
one society or institution, which is whole- 
some in its influences, can be pronounced 
unnecessary because religion covers the 
same ground, then another can, and &o on, 
until the whole, as by a mighty tide, is 
swept away. If this be more than the ob- 
jector intended, it is his, not our fault ; the 
conclusion is one of his own choice, and we 
have only traced it to its legitimate result. 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 109 

If, in blindly beating down* one foe of his 
own creation, be has, in his zeal swept away 
whole ranks of his bosom friends, by his 
artillery discharged at random, the fault be 
his : we did not ask him to fire. We said 
the conclusion was a contradiction of the 
philosophy of our nature. We think it 
even so. That is a trite and true adage, 
which says "What is everybody's business, 
is nobody's business," and is fully justified 
in all the transactions of life ; for who needs 
to be told that energies, whether of one or 
many individuals, if divided, are powerless ; 
that it is only when concentrated, that the 
physical or moral powers are fully under- 
stood and known. It is in this correct view 
of things, that the whole economy of our 
mental, moral, and political, and we may 
say, our religious enterprises are founded. 
There are certain things in one of these 
great departments which ought to be done. 
Some are keenly awake to these interests, 

but they cannot secure them alone. Some 

10 



110 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

are indifferent respecting them, while others 
are decidedly opposed to the whole. 

Under such circumstances what is to be 
done ? It is evident the object cannot be 
secured in the midst of this Babel-discord. 
What is to be done? Why, go through 
society, and gather up those elements which 
possess an affinity for each other; bring 
them together and organize them ; give to 
the organization a head and corresponding 
parts, with centre of motion ; make of them 
one complete body, set this whole in motion, 
let it be guided by concentrated intellect, 
and impelled by concentrated forces; and 
who that does not see how a good force, 
directed to a good end, must necessarily 
accomplish a good work. 

Jefferson could write an unrivalled dec- 
laration of independence, and Henry could 
make thrilling patriotic speeches, but they 
could not make a free people ; nothing but 
the concentrated energies of a whole nation 
could do this. Washington could command 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. Ill 

an army, but it required the united strength 
of an army to gain one victory. Wilber- 
force could demonstrate that slavery was 
wrong and cruel, but nothing less than the 
united effort of the whole British people 
could unloose the fetters of one slave. And 
the pulpit may, in tones never so eloquent, 
tell of the wants of a world lying in dark- 
ness, and of the duty of the church to pour 
light into those desolate regions, but nothing 
short of the united and heaven-aided ener- 
gies of that church can emancipate them 
from a darkness which may be felt. What 
is true in relation to the instances named 
above, is true in relation to every subject of 
general interest. There must be a given 
point at which all must aim, and when that 
is known, every energy must be strained to 
reach it. 

It is on this principle every institution is 
founded — the concentration of energies — 
and this is a feature which signally charac- 
terizes our holy religion, as well as every 



112 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

other cause. "Where two or three are 
gathered together in rny name, there am I 
in the midst/' says the glorious One. It was 
on this principle that the apostles gathered 
the fruits of their ministry into churches; 
and it is on the same principle that govern- 
ment and society, with all their ramifications 
rest. It is true the church and religion 
cover the whole ground, for these institu- 
tions are the offspring of religion; to her, 
and to her alone, are we indebted for every 
beneficent thought towards the well-being of 
our race. This is as true of Odd Fellow- 
ship as it is of either or any of the institu- 
tions or societies named above. All, we 
believe, attribute to the Christian religion 
the present advanced state of the civilized 
world. All acknowledge that the great 
difference which exists between the nations 
of Europe and America, and the tribes of 
Asia and Africa, arises mainly from the in- 
fluence which religion, and the Bible — the 
great teacher of religion — has had over 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 113 

these civilized races. This justifies the 
remark which we made above, that these 
societies were evidences of the advance of 
religion, and its influence over the world. 

But while we credit the church for all 
this, we must confess we are not prepared to 
adopt another sentiment which we think is 
implied in the objection — it is this: that the 
church is bound to support all the poor who 
may be in her communion. That her mem- 
bers are exhorted to charity and hospitality, 
and that in her collective capacity she is 
called upon to make collections for the des- 
titute, we most cheerfully admit ; but that 
she is to take whole families upon her 
hands, and supply all their wants, we think 
admits of a serious doubt. In a country 
like that of the United States, for instance, 
where the government has made provision 
for the comfortable support of the poor and 
the unfortunate of all classes, where each 
member of the state is taxed for this pur- 
pose, to the extent of his ability, we cannot 
10* 



114 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

see how, on the principles of equity, it can 
be demanded of any branch of the Christian 
church, that in addition to their bearing an 
equal proportion with others of their fellow- 
citizens, and supporting among them the 
gospel of peace, they should take on them- 
selves this increased burden, and at the 
same time take it from those hands which 
are strengthened by the constitution to bear 
it. Beyond this, the church has a wider 
field before her. As she looks from her 
lofty position over the field embraced in her 
great commission, and contemplates the 
millions who are perishing for want of the 
bread of life, which she holds in her hands, 
she can but feel, and we think we hear her 
say, "the world is my parish." Is it not 
enough, that through the operation of her 
tireless energies, she has roused the public 
to a sense of its duty to the poor at home, 
and incited it to care for them ? And now 
may she not with propriety, go after those 
abroad ? In such an enterprise we can but 



115 



feel that the church acts worthy of herself, 
and we must say to her traducers, that in 
the last few years she has acted well her 
part. 

But more than this : we apprehend, 
that were it understood that the Christian 
church was to maintain all the poor who 
might be connected with her communion, 
were it understood that she was to admin- 
ister to all temporal as well as spiritual 
wants, it would furnish an unworthy motive 
to men to connect themselves with her ; and 
as a consequence, many would flock to her 
bosom, not from a love of the cross, but 
from a love of bread. We know it has 
been so. When the church has been 
secular in her objects, she has always 
been secular in her membership, and 
what is more lamentable, she has, under 
such circumstances, been secular in her 
ministry. From the opening of the fourth 
century to the days of Luther, is a strik- 
ing illustration of this truth. Even now, 



116 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

where there are very few inducements of 
a temporal or secular nature connected 
with her communion, is she imposed upon, 
and her beauty marred, and her peace 
and harmony disturbed, by the encroach- 
ments of the designing and the unworthy. 
Even the pulpit, with the protection of 
all the heaven-sent sanctions with which 
it is surrounded, and all the precautions 
which wisdom and goodness could devise 
to guard it, is not unfrequently made a 
facility, by the depraved, for securing their 
ends. For these reasons, we say we doubt, 
especially under a government like ours, 
whether it is the design of its great Head 
that the church should burden itself with 
a pledge to support all the poor and help- 
less who may be thrown into her bosom. 
We question whether caution would think 
it safe to suggest such an inducement. 

With such views, we cannot be other- 
wise than pleased, when we see men organ- 
izing themselves for the purpose of driving 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 117 

want from the world ; who, though de- 
tached from the church, are nevertheless 
her auxiliaries in the great work of alle- 
viating human suffering, and who have 
derived the first thoughts of their mission, 
their impulses and motives from her. 
Should it be said by the objector to these 
views, that the church might discriminate 
and detect the imposter, we answer, since 
the days of Peter and Paul, when or 
where has she done it ? when has she had 
the power to do it ? She has never 
been endued with the gift of discerning 
spirits. It is only by their fruits she can 
determine who are worthy and w r ho are 
unworthy ; and, often, when these are 
brought forth, it is too late, the mischief 
has been done, the wound inflicted, and 
the marred body must be left for time to 
heal its hurts. Such is the office we claim 
for Odd Fellowism. That position is hum- 
ble and subordinate, it is true, when com- 
pared with the exalted position of the 



118 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

church of Christ ; yet, while it remains 
praiseworthy to supplant a vice and im- 
plant a virtue, while moral economy is 
such that he who is induced to imbibe a 
virtue, is advanced in so much as that 
virtue is important, towards what he ought 
to be, we cannot consider this institution, 
in a moral point . of view, unimportant. 
Some may have made injudicious compar- 
isons between Odd Fellowism and the 
church, but they have done it without 
understanding the true relation of either. 
Odd Fellowism was never designed to inter- 
fere with, or enter into competition with 
the church, any more than the temperance, 
or education society. Nor is there an inti- 
mation, or an expression of any design, that 
it should or could in any wise be taken as 
religion. It teaches the importance of the 
relative duties which we owe to each other 
as citizens, and social beings ; it derives 
these lessons from the pages of the Bible, 
to which it appeals at every step of its 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 119 

working, and enforces its precepts by the 
God-given sanctions it contains. It is on 
this ground that we claim for it a place 
among the moral auxiliaries which the 
religion of the Bible has given to our world. 
So that, while we accede to the truthfulness 
of the proposition, that religion and the 
Bible cover the whole ground, we feel 
impelled to the conclusion that such a prop- 
osition has no injurious bearing on Odd 
Fellowism, more than any other organiza- 
tion not strictly a church; and that this 
much abused subject still most properly lifts 
its beautiful form, smiling with kindness to 
the world, amid the arid wastes, as an 
important auxiliary to humanity, and to the 
moral interests of our world. Some have 
instituted invidious comparisons between 
Christian churches and Odd Fellowism, 
because, occasionally members in these 
churches have been in want, or have suf- 
fered, it may be, for some of the necessaries 



120 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

of life. What we have said above, should 
be a sufficient answer to those who make 
their comparisons before studying their sub- 
ject. Such may censure the community 
where these things occur, or its officers for 
not doing their duty ; but why censure the 
church in its collective capacity ? Has it 
not done for these what it was designed to 
do by its author ? Has it not preached to 
them the Gospel ? Has it not moulded 
society around by its influence, and reared 
the frame-work of the ark which is to afford 
shelter to such when the floods of want 
break loose upon them? Has it not 
appointed the proper officers, and furnished 
them with the means to make every appli- 
cant comfortable ? Then censure them not 
as a church, but censure the community. 
That the church may do this work, if she 
please, that she finds an indescribable pleas- 
ure in doing it, when she has the ability, 
there can be no question. But that she has 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 121 

promised to do so generally, or that it would 
be expedient, or even safe for her to do so, 
is questionable. 

But how is this in Odd Fellowism ? We 
have here a society formed for this express 
purpose, a society which, while it claims no 
exemption from public charges or common 
charities, proposes in the hour of adversity 
to give its members maintenance to a cer- 
tain amount each week, during their inca- 
pacity to help themselves, and this, not as a 
charity, but as debt. To secure the means 
necessary for this, they make each member 
a contributor to a certain amount, the fund 
so arising to be devoted to this purpose. In 
sickness, they propose to give their members 
all the attention necessary, or which their 
situation may demand. To secure this, they 
have an organization, and rules to govern 
that organization, for this specific object, 

Under such an arrangement, and with 
such provision, ought not their sick and 
distressed members to be cared for and 



122 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

attended ? Ought not this to be done be1> 
ter by them than by any other class in 
society ? They would be censurable, more 
than censurable, did they not redeem their 
pledges, under these circumstances. Indeed, 
it is no disparagement to any people, to 
have it said the sick among Odd Fellows are 
better attended than any other class of men 
in like circumstances. 



it turns t\)t Sible out of EDoors." 



T has been well and often 
said, "a fool may ask ques- 
tions a philosopher cannot 
answer." And we have learn- 
ed by this time that objections 
are quite as available as ques- 
tions. Another objection which 
is often urged against this institu- 
tion is, that " It turns the Bible 
out of doors." 

After what has already been said, 
this may appear, as it really is, a strange 
objection ; and the more so, as the fact that 
every lodge-room is furnished with a Bible 
is one which is by no means secret ; a fact 
which the objector might have learned, had 
he only taken the trouble to enquire of any 




124 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

one who knew, or which he could have been 
permitted to do, gone into a lodge-room and 
seen for himself. Yet this objection has not 
only been stated in private conversations, 
but by the aid of the press and newspapers 
trumped through the land. We will pass 
no censure on those who can find time and 
heart to do such undesirable work, as impli- 
edly to cast on many, whose life as well as 
profession speaks a different language, the 
imputation of infidelity. 

We will only leave with them the inquiry, 
is such the charity which thinketh no evil ? 
and pass to assure them of the far-known 
fact that every lodge-room is furnished with 
a copy of the Sacred Scriptures ; and more, 
which is, that most of their lectures and 
charges are extracts from those pages of 
wisdom and authority; that whether men 
ever heard the words of Inspired Wisdom at 
home or in the church or not, if they are 
Odd Fellows they must see and hear the 
Bible read, and have its precepts enforced 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 125 

upon them. All the way they travel in the 
order, whenever they meet, then they must 
hear the voice of the Bible, not as the words 
of man merely, but as the voice of God ; nor 
as directed to a promiscuous assembly, but 
to them as individuals. If this be turning 
the Bible out of doors, if this is treating it 
with neglect, if this is high-handed impiety, 
why, then, we submit with patience to the 
imputation of heathenism and infidelity, 
until our accusers shall show us what is 
meant by bringing the Bible within doors, 
when in this respect we may mend our 
ways. And if we can be persuaded that 
the Bible of which they speak, will not 
make us as vindictive and censorious, and 
as uncharitable as they show themselves to 
be, we may be prevailed upon to adopt it. 
But until that time, they will please excuse 
us if we continue to use the commonly 
received and authorized version of the Word 
of God ; until that time, we shall be under 

the necessity of teaching our members such 

11* 



126 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

antiquated precepts as the following : "Thou 
shalt not covet." " Thou shalt not bear false 
witness against thy neighbor." (i Charity 
suffereth long and is kind, is not puffed up, 
behaveth itself not unseemly, hopeth all 
things, endureth all things, charity never 
faileth." Such is the turning out of doors, 
and the rejection of the Bible, of which Odd 
Fellows are guilty; may they never be 
guilty of a greater crime. 



©ito jFdlotosljtp is fxmwsonxQ Eemx)ri>." 

HE mind of man hath sought 
out many inventions. How 
true ! And never was this 
saying more true in relation 
to any subject, or class of sub- 
jects, than it is in relation to 
those which excite our prejudices; 
never is the mind more fruitful in 
expedients than when it is in search 
of excuses with which to ward off the 
N attacks of those subjects which in 
spite of our prejudice, are assailing and com- 
mending themselves to our conscience, and 
our judgment. It seems to us this is the 
only apology we can make for this far 
reaching after objections to a subject like 
this. But we will not complain ; so here is 
another, — "Odd Fellowship is Freemasonry 




128 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

revived." How far this may be true, we 
are unable to say ; though we confess that 
to us it appears highly improbable, that 
two institutions which are identical, should 
exist in the same place, at the same time, 
under different names, and without any 
intercourse. Yet we know this to be the 
case with these institutions, both in Europe 
and America; those who are Odd Fellows 
unite with the Masons, as a distinct and 
separate society. And Masons do the same 
in uniting with the Odd Fellows : which we 
cannot see why they should do, if the insti- 
tutions were the same. Beyond this, the 
two fraternities have no intercourse what- 
ever. How this could be, and the institu- 
tions be one and the same thing, we are 
unable to account. Such being the facts in 
the case, it seems highly improbable that 
they should each possess the same character, 
and not exist under the same form. There 
is still another fact in relation to this sub- 
ject, which is simply this: We know 



129 

nothing of Freemasonry only what we have 
read in books. Now, if what has been 
published as an exposition of the internal 
operations of this institution be true, then 
we perhaps know as much about Free- 
masonry as the objector, and a great deal 
more about Odd Fellowship, and we can 
assure him that the two institutions so far 
from being identical, are in no wise alike ; 
if that be untrue, then neither the objector 
nor ourself know anything about it. Let 
this, however, be as it may, one thing is 
certain, if we can depend on reliable testi- 
mony ; which is, that these institutions, so 
far from being the same, are in no way 
similar; unless it be that members are known 
in each of them by certain signs and tokens, 
instead of a written title or certificate, which 
would be likely to make them resemble 
each other about as much as they both 
might resemble the savages of our western 
wilderness, who it is well known, make 



130 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

themselves understood by the same process, 
they having no written language. 

Whether, after this explanation, and as 
we think refutation, the objector will persist 
in urging the identity of the two institu- 
tions, is to us quite as unimportant as it is 
uncertain. 



"Uonr Sorietg rompris tlje ®oofc to associate 
mitt) tlje Bab." 

HY do you bow to that 
poor negro," said a person 
once to the immortal 
Washington, as he . walked 
the streets of one of our 
populous cities ; and the reply- 
was worthy of the man : " Shall 
I," said he, "manifest less man- 
ners than he ? " And it is thus 
we should reply to those who ask us 
why we condescend to unite with 
persons connected with no church in 
the promotion of good and worthy objects : 
Shall the Christian, the follower of Him 
who went about doing good, have less in- 
terest in the improvement of the world than 
they ? And yet we often hear this objec- 




132 THE OJ)D FELLOWS' AMULET. 

tion urged against this institution, " Your 
society compels the good to associate with 
the bad, and is objectionable on this ground, 
if no other." We might reply to this ob- 
jection, and it would be answer enough 
to it, by the simple inquiry, whether the 
good ought not to associate with the bad ? 
whether bad men, left to themselves, will 
be very likely to become better ? Does 
the objector mean to convey the idea by 
this objection, that good men ought to 
become recluse — that it is their duty to 
assume the habits and practice of the an- 
chorite ? that so soon as a man is converted, 
he should withdraw from the world alto- 
gether ? Is this the doctrine he would 
teach us ? How does this accord with the 
instruction the Bible gives us on this sub- 
ject? "Behold," says the Great Teacher, 
" Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the 
midst of wolves, be ye therefore wise as 
serpents and harmless as doves." What is 
the doctrine which the Saviour taught those 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 133 

from-the-world separatists, when he sat at 
the table of Matthew, the publican, as an 
invited guest, and they denounced him, 
because he kept company with sinners? 
What is his irrefutable reply to these his 
traducers ? "I came not to call the right- 
eous, but sinners to repentance." And in 
his recorded prayer, just before he left his 
disciples for the hall of Pilate, and the cru- 
cifixion scene ; what was the burden of that 
omnipotent plea ? "I pray not that thou 
shouldst take them out of the world, but 
that thou shouldst keep them from the 
evil." Such are the views of the adored 
Saviour of the relations of his people to the 
world. He does not pray that his disciples 
or his people should be taken immediately 
to heaven, but that they should be " kept 
from the evil " — from sin, not from sinners, 
for it is to these they are sent ; their errand 
is " to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 
The Pharisee who came to worship in the 
temple, could not keep company with the 

12 



134 THE ODD FELLOWS* AMULET. 

poor publican, who came on the same 
errand ; and yet that same poor publican 
went down to his house with what the ar- 
rogant Pharisee could not obtain ; he went 
down justified. These and a thousand 
other Scriptures show us how wonderfully 
some men have misapprehended the great 
and important doctrine of the Scriptures 
on this subject. That Christian men are 
exhorted to " come out from the world, and 
be separate," is a most true and wholesome 
doctrine. 

But let us understand this doctrine, 
which certainly cannot mean that Christian 
men shall literally go out of the world, and 
abandon the society of their neighbors, who 
may be so unfortunate as to be without the 
change which has made them Christians. 
What, then, is intended to be taught by 
that Scripture ? is it not this ? Christians 
will abandon those things and practices, 
which the word of God makes it unlawful 
for them to use, but which are indulged in 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 135 

by unregenerate men. They will perforin 
those duties which are enjoined upon all 
men "by Jehovah, but which are neglected 
by those without the religion of the Cross. 
They will be actuated by those motives 
which are apprehended by faith in the 
atonement, but motives which are wholly 
disregarded and lost sight of by irreligious 
men. It is by such lives they will separate 
themselves from the world, for such lives 
will necessarily render them unlike it. It 
is by such a walk, that they like righteous 
Noah and Lot will reprove the world of the 
ungodly, for such a walk must ever be 
opposed to its practices. 

Such, we apprehend, is the true doctrine 
of separation from the world. And this, 
we think, was taught by Paul, when he 
assured his brethren that it was unlawful 
for them to commune with the adulterous 
and the covetous, and persons of this class ; 
yet he says they cannot be free from them 
entirely, for then, says he, " Ye must needs 



136 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

go out of the world." As though he had 
said, you cannot be free from such persons, 
indeed you ought not to be, but you ought 
so to live that your lives may reprove 
them ; you must mingle with such here, 
from the necessity of the case ; the " wheat 
and the tares must grow together until 
the harvest," so that you cannot be free 
from such persons while you are in the 
world. 

This Scripture contact of the good with 
the bad, of the moral with the immoral, the 
religious with the irreligious, is the true way 
to try the strength of the one, and reclaim 
the other. We are aware that the plea is, 
that the good will be liable to become viti- 
ated with this too liberal contact with care- 
less and irreligious men; but it is to be 
feared that he who has not religious integ- 
rity sufficient to bear the shocks with which 
these make their onsets upon him, is want- 
ing in that integrity which would enable 
him to bear a trial of his faith in any form 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 137 

in which it might be presented by the 
world, with which he necessarily comes in 
contact, in the ordinary transactions of life. 
In other words, it may be donbted whether 
he possesses the deep-seated, gennine prin- 
ciple of religion at all. The good common 
sense of the world practically discards snch 
a view of man's relations in this life. Hence 
it is considered morally right, for the Chris- 
tian and the non-professing man to form 
partnerships, the religious and the irreligious 
members of society mingle in the civil and 
political affairs of the day, and we often see 
them occupying the same field, side by side, 
in urging forward great moral interests. In 
this we are often led to rejoice ; for while, 
on the one hand, we see in these instances 
the grasp religion has on the popular heart, 
on the other, we trust that those persons 
who have been brought so far, by the force 
of right principles, will, through the force 
of the same truth, be carried still onward 

to the wished-for and all-important goal. 
12* 



138 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

It will doubtless be said by some, that even 
in some of the cases named above, the con- 
tact is questionable : the connection of 
good men with politics, for instance ; but 
we reply to this, by saying that the very 
things to which objection is made, have 
arisen through the carrying out of the prin- 
ciples of the objector. 

Good men, through mistaken views of 
their duty, have given up these subjects to 
the interested and the unprincipled, until 
anarchy pervades the whole, and now, with 
uplifted hands and averted eyes, they 
lament over the confusion which prevails; 
a state of things for which, if they could be 
made to feel the fact, they are responsible. 
And it is thus many will ever act. Instead 
of summoning to their aid a strong and an 
invincible moral integrity, and then going 
forth and throwing themselves into the 
breach, and with giant efforts rolling back 
the dark wave which threatens them and 
the world, they will wrap themselves in 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 139 

their sacred seclusion, leaving the field open 
to every intruder who is pleased to occupy 
it. There they will rest supinely, and let 
the devil work, without let or hinderance; 
and occasionally they will take the trouble 
to look out from the crevices of their 
retreat, and then the land is filled with 
their bitter wailing, as they cry, " Oh ! the 
desolation ! Oh ! the moral waste ! " Nor 
can such by any means be drawn from their 
retreat, unless it should be to cast a stone at 
some daring brother, whose heart has ached 
long enough over the wide-wrought ruin, 
and who has come forth to try what his 
strength can do towards repairing some of 
the breaches which have been made in the 
moral enclosure. Such persons are full of 
alarm when a new enterprise or a new 
science lifts its light or promise over the 
land, and, without giving one hour to deter- 
mine the merits of the subject, are prepared 
to send out the alarm wide-spread, and 
impeach or disfranchise all who dare to 



140 



differ from them in their hasty and unjust 
conclusions. No matter how high the tal- 
ents, how far-reaching the intellect, or how 
strong the moral integrity of the man whom 
they condemn; he has embraced interests 
and views which these judges do not under- 
stand, which are at war with their long- 
seated prejudices, and which they cannot 
appreciate ; and, as a matter of course, all 
the moral excellencies, which have been 
maturing and growing firmer for years, 
must pass for nothing, they must now give 
way, and fall about his ears. The spirit 
which gave Galileo the choice between 
recantation and death, for asserting the most 
sublime physical truth known to our world, 
is not dead, but still lives and works among 
men. 

But the course pursued by the objectors 
to Odd Fellowism is at once the most curi- 
ous and strange. First, they assert that the 
institution is one of a most dangerous char- 
acter ; they then take it for granted that all 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 141 

who are connected with it are corrupt and 
dangerous men, which of course would make 
the institution still more dangerous. Then 
they assert that it is highly improper for 
good men to connect themselves with it. 
Such is the course of reasoning pursued by 
the opposers of this cause, tacitly, if not in 
reality. That they are impotent to prevent 
the existence of such institutions they 
acknowledge ; that something of the kind 
ever has existed in the world is a fact ; that 
such societies ever will exist, while men 
claim and enjoy the right to select for them- 
selves relations in private life, is highly 
probable. Under such circumstances, what 
is to be done? Why, according to the 
objector, we are to withdraw from them 
every conservative influence, and let them 
riot on the interests of society, without the 
vigilant eye of one who has the integrity to 
hold them back from mischief, or sound in 
the ears of those in danger the alarm. 
They object to the connection of good men 



142 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

with them, while, if there is real danger, 
these are the only men who can be 
depended upon, to give us notice of that 
danger. It is now we hear the note, you 
are all interested ; bad men are there, and 
you have a common interest in covering up 
and disguising your proceedings. But how 
is this ? We find in these societies the most 
prominent and trustworthy members of 
every church ; here are men of prominence 
from every circle in society ; here are cler- 
gymen from every church in Christendom, 
except Papists ; men whose piety is spotless, 
whose character cannot be impeached ; men 
whom we would believe on any other sub- 
ject, and under any other circumstances : 
all of whom tell us the same story; all 
bring back the same account of this institu- 
tion, and they do this after having studied 
it long and attentively too. Now can it be 
possible that all these men, after all the 
tests which have been applied to their 
moral integrity, after all the professions 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 143 

they have made of attachment to the truth, 
after all the evidences they have given of 
the fact, are corrupt at the core, and deceiv- 
ers and base hypocrites ; that, Judas-like, 
they are prepared not only to sell their 
master, but their country, for the interest 
of this society, which none consider more 
than secondary in importance? So much 
for the corruption and baseness of the mem- 
bers of this institution. Let him believe it 
who can ; let him judge thus who dare with 
his Bible open before him. Indeed, if this 
is the charity possessed by our opposers, 
with all their professed goodness, we greatly 
prefer that which is taught by Odd Fellow- 
ship ; for were one of its members convicted 
of such slanderous denunciation of his 
neighbors, were he never so honorable, he 
could not escape the penalty of immediate 
expulsion from the order. Nay, we say, let 
good men be found here, and if the order 
be what its opposers suppose it to be, we are 
assured they will either give the alarm to 



144 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

a threatened world, of the volcano which is 
boiling and abont to burst under their feet, 
or they will snatch from the hands of those 
who hold it, the lever with which mischief 
is about to overset the world, and thus 
secure society against the general and fatal 
crash. So far as this institution is concerned, 
in bringing the different classes of society 
together, there is more reason to rejoice 
than to indulge in unnecessary alarm. It is 
indeed a happy feature of our age, that the 
world finding itself by far too much divided, 
is putting forth some great and laudable 
efforts to bring its scattered fragments 
together and make them cohere ; not by 
giving up any view or doctrine which any 
one may regard as essential to his views, but 
by that all-pervading love by which the 
Saviour designs to bind man to man, and 
bring our race to heaven. Such a union is 
not designed to obliterate the lines which 
mark the boundaries between virtue and 
vice, nor to confound the one with the other, 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 145 

but to tolerate innocent non-essentials in 
our brother, and at the same time give a 
strong, because a united, discountenance to 
all which is sinful and dangerous. 

This is the same principle on which Odd 
Fellowship brings its elements together. It 
teaches its members that they are not to 
meet under its outspread banner as rich, or 
poor, as Baptists or Presbyterians, or Episco- 
palians, or Methodists, but as men who are 
liable to reverses and suffering, as moral 
beings who are constantly in need of moral 
culture and moral restraints ; that their busi- 
ness here is not to discuss this or that, or the 
other end, but act mutually to make each 
other happier and better. 

If this is not a fair field for the powers of 
good men, if this be not a place and a work 
appropriate to the best of men, if this is a 
place to endanger the purest feelings, the 
most exact sense of right, then we have 
failed to understand the duty of man to man, 
and the relation of good morals or of religion 

13 



146 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

to this life. If teaching men that it is their 
duty to be good citizens, good parents, and 
good neighbors, to live peaceably with all 
men, to love God with all the heart, and 
their neighbor as themselves, to practise 
universal kindness, to look upon the whole 
globe as the field of their charitable labors 
and to do all they do as in the presence of a 
heart-searching God, whose eye is ever upon 
them, and to whom they must give an 
account for all their actions here ; if point- 
ing them to the grave, and urging the uncer- 
tain, it may be the early period when they 
will certainly accupy it as their abode, as a 
reason why they should curb their passions, 
and bring every affection into subjection to 
the perfect law of love ; if all this, which is 
enforced on Odd Fellows, endangers the 
character of the good, then we have learned 
for the first time, that the same great truth 
may at the same time give life and produce 
death — may work a radical reform, and 
entomb in a ruinous error. And yet these 



147 

truths are taught and enforced in Odd 
Fellowship. 

The objector will doubtless say, there is 
nothing new in all this, the same things are 
taught from the pulpit. This we cheerfully 
acknowledge, and hence conclude they will 
do no harm if taught in the lodge-room. 

One thing we must be permitted to 
express here, it is this: that the spirit of 
religious intolerance, which has pervaded so 
many minds, and which has so often been 
manifested in relation to this subject, which 
says, "stand there, for I am holier than 
thou ;" that spirit which forbids men to think 
for themselves, however they may act, has 
done the church of God, as well as the 
world, infinite mischief. Men will think and 
act for themselves. They feel an assurance 
that they enjoy this right by permission of 
the highest legislation in the universe ; and 
when they know they are justified in their 
action by the great charter of liberty which 
he has given them, — when men under these 



148 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

circumstances meet with opposition, and 
from those who profess to hold that charter 
in high estimation, and even to be governed 
by its spirit deeply engraven on their inner 
heart, they will ever feel less respect for 
such men, and will be influenced by them 
less in all subsequent time : it will even be 
fortunate if they do not pronounce the pro- 
fessions of such hypocrisy, and the very 
substance of the new creation of their in- 
ward nature, which they profess, a farce ; 
and little wonder, for such manifest any 
other than the liberal feeling and the 
catholic spirit which the great charter of 
religious liberty inculcates, and which the 
lowest intellect can understand. 

We do not mean to say by this, that op- 
posers to Odd Fellowship cannot be Chris- 
tians, or that many do not and have not 
opposed this order from honest convictions 
of duty. However this may be, the disaster 
of which we speak is not the less certain, 
or less ruinous. When instances can be 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 149 

found where the faith of men has been 
unsettled, where religious habits have 
been undermined and Christians have 
been plunged into error by the teaching 
or the practical workings of this order, 
then, and not before, may it with consist- 
ency be pronounced dangerous. 

13* 



(fetramgant." 

WO knights once met on the 
high way at a place directly 
over which a shield was sus- 
pended. After the usual 
civilities, common to travellers 
of their time, one remarks to 
the other, "this is a beautiful 
brazen shield." "No," said the 
other, " you are mistaken ; it is a 
silver shield." "I must insist," said 
the first, "on the veracity of my 
senses ; it is certainly of brass." " It 
cannot be," said the second ; " my eyes tell 
me it is silver." " You must be plying me 
with falsehood," said the first knight, in 
anger. " And you would push the lie down 
my throat," retorted the second. So each 




THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 151 

drawing his blade, they concluded to deter- 
mine whether the shield was brass or silver 
by arguments of steel. While they were 
thus engaged in earnest endeavors to cut 
each others' throats, covered with dust and 
blood, a third person made his appearance, 
and being informed of the cause of their 
difficulty, told the astonished combatants of 
what they had entirely overlooked, which 
was the fact that the shield had actually 
two sides, and that one was of silver and 
the other of brass. The fact in the case 
was, each knight had examined only his 
own side of the shield, and was prepared to 
pledge his blood that he had got the right 
of the whole subject. It is often so here ; 
each man takes the side which lies towards 
the way from which he comes, and each 
believes he has got the whole subject ; but 
we should bear in mind that every question, 
like the shield, has two sides, one is silver, 
and the other brass, and he must take the 
whole mass if he would find both. 



152 THE ODD FELLOWS* AMULET. 

It strikes us this is too much the case 
with those who urge their objections to this 
society, and especially so, when we have 
heard this objection urged, "Your regalia is 
useless, expensive, and extravagant." It is 
well known that one of the most successful 
modes of teaching has been by symbols. 
In some ages of the world this form of im- 
parting instruction has been used altogether, 
and in sacred things this form has been pre- 
ferred above all others. Hence among the 
Jews their external religion consisted almost 
entirely of symbols. 

These have been continued in the Chris- 
tian religion, where we have Baptism and 
the Lord's Supper ; and what could more 
beautifully and sublimely express what 
they were designed to represent? One 
peculiarity in symbolic teaching is, that the 
sign be simple in itself; which also con- 
stitutes to the furtherance of the great 
end of this kind of instruction, which is 
that it be enduring. 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 153 

Suppose, then, we wish to teach the 
importance of unity and purity, and at the 
same time produce uniformity in the ap- 
pearance of a company of men, and distin- 
guish the relation each bore to the object 
which engaged our attention, and still 
have symbolized before each individual the 
peculiar obligation he is under, and the 
specific duties he is to perform ; how could 
this be done better, and in a more simple 
way, than by a collar and apron, to which 
should be attached a simple color, which 
should at the same time tell the rank and 
duty of the wearer. Such is the design of 
the regalia of the order. If it be said that 
it is simple, we have only to reply, then it 
is just what it was designed to be. 

But it is further said, much of the regalia 
is extravagant, and involves needless ex- 
pense. Lodges are not in the habit of pur- 
chasing such regalia ; theirs is common and 
cheap. The expense of the costly regalia 
of which they complain, is a matter to be 



154 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

settled between the wearer and the objector. 
If he thinks this a matter of his concern, 
and can make the purchaser of costly 
regalia think so too, he may, perhaps, pre- 
vail on him to be more economical in future. 
But we have the curiosity to look at this 
matter of expensive equipage a little fur-, 
ther. We have often seen, on occasions of 
military parade, the very class of persons 
who object to expensive regalia, stand with 
chained attention, admiring a corps of mili- 
tary, praising the neatness of their equipage, 
and envying the soldier his place. They 
would even bring their children to look 
with them on this jovial death-pageant, and 
admire this or that officer, as with glittering 
sword and shining tinsel flashing in the sun- 
beams, he gave his orders, which, when the 
reality should come, would send fifties or 
hundreds of immortal souls to the spirit 
world, and make as many wives widows, and 
twice as many children fatherless ; a pageant 
which must ever be attended with hardness 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 155 

of heart, and with all the immorality of the 
camp ; which must dry every tear by the 
representation of human suffering over 
which it would remorselessly roll its iron 
war-wheel, and crush with its remorseless 
war-tread in its barbarous charges to death, 
hushing groans by the shout of battle or 
the thunder of arms; while the desire to 
alleviate the bleeding and mangled forms 
which strew the field, does not once enter 
into the economy of the profession. And 
the objector admires this glittering array, 
and never once thinks to censure this lavish 
expenditure for death purposes; and yet 
the equipage worn by one of these minions 
of the Angel of Death, would furnish a 
whole lodge with the badges of the order. 
But no sooner does an Odd Fellow make 
his appearance with the badge of humanity, 
and of moral lessons, by which to train his 
better feelings to tenderness, and instead 
of making widows and orphans, to alleviate 



156 



their sorrows and administer to their wants, 
than the welkin rings with u Oh ! the 
extravagance of Odd Fellows ! " But sup- 
pose Odd Fellows should wear just such 
badges as the objector would have them, 
how long before we should hear another 
objector from another quarter saying, "You 
cannot think very highly of your institu- 
tion, or you would clothe it better." 

The truth is, persons connected with this 
society feel that it is worthy of a proper 
representation, and while it continues as 
it is, we sincerely hope it may enjoy such 
attention and representation ; for of all this 
we believe it every way worthy. 

Men are not very apt to lavish attention 
on unworthy objects, especially those of a 
moral nature ; but when they do this, and 
more especially when persons of all classes 
do this, it is very good evidence that the 
subject which they treat thus, is, in their 
judgment, one worthy to be honored and 



157 

respected. Those who understand the 
subject the best, reckon Odd Fellowship to 
be worthy of this attention ; and those who 
know little or nothing of it, complain of 
them for rendering such a judgment, and 
maintaining, without compulsion, such a 
practice. 

14 



& u n h o 

tOe object to ptxr name — ' GDttr Idioms ! * " 

T would seem as though the 
opposers of this institution 
were determined to cripple 
or crush it under some form. 
Hence, when they are met at 
one objection, where they had 
entrenched themselves, they im- 
mediately fly to another, as 
though they hoped, by taking 
shelter under successive subterfuges, 
or starting a whole array of phan- 
toms of their own creation, to frighten the 
lovers of this cause from their position, or 
by clothing the public mind with prejudice, 
to bar effectually the onward march of the 
order. Here, then, after we had patiently 
threaded our way through the mazes of a 
whole wilderness of objections, and hoped 




AMULET. 159 

here to find rest, we are aroused from our 
fond hopes by a whisper in our ears from a 
spectre-like form, " We object to the name 
of your institution — ' Odd Fellows ! ' " Oh ! 
horror! So here we are again, fairly at 
sea, navigating this dangerous name-ocean, 
where, we suppose, according to the objec- 
tor, many a fair craft has foundered on a 
name, a horrid name ! Yery well, what is 
there in a name, after all? Are names 
essential qualities of objects, or merely signs 
of qualities? Nay, are they the signs of 
qualities at all? Is not their office still 
lower than this, and do they represent in 
any way, unless it is by conventional agree- 
ment, under certain circumstances, more 
than the fact of mere existences ; and these, 
quite as often as otherwise, arise from 
merely accidental circumstances, of which 
numberless instances might be given. For 
instance, the name of Christian was origi- 
nally designed as one of reproach, but not- 
withstanding, was adopted by the church at 



160 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

the time, and has been by the world since. 
So with the terms Puritan and Methodist. 
Now if men have been pleased to furnish a 
nomenclature for this order, and it has seen 
fit to adopt what has been furnished to its 
hands, of what harm has it been guilty, 
more than those named above ? 

In these instances, the cause was enough 
to elevate the name, and make it respec- 
table. Let it be so in this. 

The name does not make the thing. 
Neither does it add to nor detract from it a 
single quality. We might apply the term 
virtue to vice, but this would not change 
the quality of the action one iota, nor 
would it render, the one less odious, or the 
other less commendable. Were we to call 
gold lead, or lead gold, these metals would 
retain the qualities they now possess, in 
spite of the name ; and so with men. How 
many have borne the name of Socrates, but 
did the world ever enjoy more than one 
sage of Athens ? Many a Washington has 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 161 

lived in our day, yet there is only one who 
is entitled to the appellation of Father of 
his Country. We have known many 
Frankhnsj and yet the world boasts of 
only one who could devise the means to 
master the hissing lightning, and tame it 
into the service of man. Who does not see 
in all this, the cause or the man giving 
character to the name, and not the name to 
the cause or the man. It is true, a name 
might have been found by which to desig- 
nate this institution, possessing to the pop- 
ular ear a little more euphony than the one 
it has, but so long as it answers our purpose, 
and as there is no law for imprisoning or 
hanging men for their names, we hope we 
may be permitted to wear ours. 

14* 



" M makts Christians frUcwsfjtp % iflukefo 
anb tlje JnfiM." 

IOGENES, it is said, on one 
occasion, was seen walking 
the streets of Athens at noon- 
day with a lantern, and when 
enquired of what he was look- 
ing for, answered, "■ I am look- 
ing for an honest man." So it 
seems our opponents, at noon-day, 
not contented with the light 
which already blazes on this subject, 
are abroad with tapers, rush-lights, 
and torches, peering into every crevice and 
corner, not to find a virtue, however, but to 
see how many bad things they can guess, 
and find, and say, about Odd Fellows. It is 
further objected, that "it makes Christians 
fellowship the wicked and the infidel." 




THE ODD FELLOWS* AMULET. 163 

This, however, is only the same objection 
which we have already answered, put into a 
new dress; but notwithstanding, we will 
answer it, as there is one feature presented 
in this form, which was not fully expressed, 
and therefore was not met under the objec- 
tion which asserts that this society compels 
the good and the bad to associate together. 
The great difficulty in this form which the 
objection has assumed, appears to be in the 
persons whom we fellowship. If it is 
intended to be said that we fellowship all of 
the man's belief, we flatly deny the charge. 
There is not such a thing hinted at in the 
whole order. The institution does teach 
toleration, which we suppose means simply 
to allow every man the same privilege which 
we ask for ourself, that is of selecting and 
enjoying his own opinion, on any and every 
subject; and this is a right which is guar- 
anteed to every man, in all moral and civil 
codes. " Hence that man's opinions are tol- 
erated, though not espoused, by every mem- 



164 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

ber of society. The objecto? fellowships the 
very men to whom he objects, as an Ameri- 
can citizen, as a temperance man, as a 
benevolent man ; that is, he fellowships him 
just so far as he thinks he is right, and no 
farther. The fact that he is persuaded that 
he thinks right, and acts right, on some sub- 
jects, does not make it follow as a necessary 
consequence that he does so on all subjects. 
This is the principle of fellowship among 
Christian churches. They act together, and 
have what is denominated fellowship, not- 
withstanding each holds much of what the 
other denominates error ; they fellowship as 
far as they agree. Such is the case in Odd 
Fellowship. We believe it is the duty of 
all men to be friendly, to help each other in 
the time of need, to contribute to each 
other's happiness and comfort. Here we 
are agreed ; here we mutually believe each 
other to be right ; and so far, and no farther, 
our fellowship extends. We do here* what 
good common sense^ and reason, and the 



165 



Bible demand of every moral being — 
approve what we conscientiously believe to 
be right, and condemn what is wrong. 

Here is one thing, however, which sur- 
prises us not a little. The objector inti- 
mates at least, that there are a great many 
bad, wicked, and infidel men in this society. 
How this may be, we are unable to say. It 
has not been our fortune, however, to meet 
with very many of this class, and we have 
had a pretty extensive acquaintance with 
the order. But we have had the fortune to 
meet with a great many men who stood, 
wherever they were known, deservedly 
high for piety, religious zeal, and consist- 
ency of life, although they sometimes met 
with irreligious, infidel, wicked men, accord- 
ing to the objector. And we have often 
wished, most heartily, that as much could 
be said of some, not all (for there are some 
honorable exceptions), of our objectors, 
though they profess to dwell constantly 
in the bosom of the church. 



166 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

We see, however, how far the fellowship 
of the order reaches, and that this spectre 
of fellowship, like all others which visit our 
world, is either only imaginary, the fruit 
of -not exactly a disordered, but of a preju- 
diced mind, a creature only of air. 



"dDttr jFdlotns are bounb to sljkltr tacl) ofytx 
from Jptmtsljttient m\)tn (Bmtltg." 

<^JJ^FTEK thunder, we generally 
have rain," was the only reply 
of Socrates when Xantippe, 
after having exhausted her 
ingenuity to arouse his pas- 
sions, and as a last resort pour- 
ed some dirty water upon him 
from a window. And so it ap- 
pears to be with our opposers; 
after having exhausted all their re- 
sources to accomplish something else, 
and perhaps not being fully satisfied 
wi£h their own effort, they now think to 
spatter us a little, so that in any event we 
may not appear quite as clean as we 
otherwise should. 




168 



Hence, we have this objection, " Odd 
Fellows are bound to shield each other 
from punishment, when guilty ; and the 
minister who is a member of this society, 
will protect its members, who are accused 
before him, so that the church cannot ob- 
tain redress when she has been wronged 
by her members." There are two parts to 
this objection ; one relates to matters of a 
civil character, the other to those of an 
ecclesiastical. As relates to the first part 
of this objection, which is, that Odd Fel- 
lows are bound to shield each other from 
merited punishment, it were answer enough 
to say the Koran was never more false 
than such an assertion. Every Odd Fel- 
low knows that he is taught, and strictly 
charged, directly the opposite of this. The 
importance of conforming to the laws of 
the country where he may be, is directly 
and forcibly urged upon him, and he is 
assured that in violating these laws, he not 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 169 

only violates the spirit but the letter of 
the laws of the order. 

In many instances, a violation of civil 
law excludes a member from the associa- 
tion. Hence, when members of this insti- 
tution are guilty of crime, we feel ourselves 
doubly bound to bring them to justice, for 
such are guilty of a double crime ; they 
have violated two codes by which they have 
solemnly promised to be governed ; and 
when a member is found in these unhappy 
circumstances, other members are strictly 
charged not to cover up or palliate his 
guilt. As to the ecclesiastical objection, 
were it the case that the minister was 
clothed with absolute power, there might 
be, could we bring ourselves to believe a 
man standing in this sacred relation would 
dare be so base, some apparent weight in 
the objection ; but since all churches with 
which we happen to be acquainted, try 
their accused members by their peers, the 
minister only sitting as judge in the case, 

15 



170 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

having no power to move, only as the jury 
shall say guilty or not guilty, or we are 
unable to see the force of the objection at 
all. We think, however, this circumstance 
is sufficient to show the impossibility of such 
an occurrence as the objector supposes. 

But suppose we were to admit the possi- 
bility of such an occurrence ; what then ? 
Why, in most, we think in all instances, the 
parties have the right to an appeal to a 
higher tribunal, where any irregularity or 
partialities in the court below, would be 
detected ; and shame and disgrace, if not 
punishment, would fall on him who could so 
far depart from his duty as to favor the 
guilty, under any circumstances whatever. 
Were there no other, these views, we think, 
would sufficiently obviate the objection ; for 
we can hardly conceive one so stupid, and 
so steeped in folly, even had he the dispo- 
sition, as to venture his reputation, on such 
a procedure, when the means of detection 
were so certain and so easy. But let all 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 171 

this be as it may, what we said in answer to 
that part of the objection relating to civil 
matters, is equally applicable laere. A 
double obligation rests on the administrator, 
to see that the offending member is pun- 
ished. Now look for a moment, at the 
character which these accusers ascribe to 
their brethren, no matter whether laymen 
or clergy ; men who, perhaps, were in the 
church before their accusers were born ; 
who have manifested, and do yet, an uncom- 
promising zeal for the advancement of the 
holy cause which they profess ; men whose 
property, time, and talents, are unreservedly 
devoted to the advancement of all that is 
good ; men against whom slander dare not 
breathe; who have ever been considered 
ornaments to the body with which they 
were connected, until now they have com- 
mitted the wonderful offence of becoming 
Odd Fellows ; no other crime or offence is 
alleged against them; to all appearance, 
they are as good, they live as devotional as 



172 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

ever ; and yet they are suspicious characters. 
Let those judge thus who please, who find 
comfort in it, but before they settle down in 
thut judgment, let them go and read the 
fiftieth Psalm and the ninth commandment, 
for their especial edification ; let them study 
the import of charity, as taught by the 
Sacred Scriptures, and of toleration, as 
taught by the Lord Jesus Christ, when the 
disciples came and reported one who was 
casting out devils in his name, but who 
would not follow them, and they forbade 
him. "Forbid him not," said he, "for no 
man that can do a miracle in my name, can 
lightly speak evil of me." Here is another 
objection, which, like its predecessors, is 
without foundation and without weight ; 
and we would that it were as sinless on the 
part of those who make it, as it is without 
foundation so far as it relates to Odd Fellows. 
Thus we have passed through this long array 
of objections to the . Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows. How successfully and con- 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 173 

clusively we have met and answered them, 
our readers must determine. One grace, 
however, we think will be awarded us, that 
is, patience ; and another we have tried to 
exercise, which is candor and fairness. If 
we have been lead astray at any point, let it 
be attributed to inadvertence, not design. 

As to the character of the objections 
urged against the order, an enlightened 
public will judge of them. The weight and 
importance of each, we are aware will strike 
different minds with different force : though 
we have endeavored to treat each with can- 
dor, and with reason. Yet, we must say, 
.this has been done as a* matter of respect, 
not because we considered them worthy of 
the importance the objector would seem to 
attach to them. 

Several of these objections we consider of 
the most frivolous character, having, if 
allowed their full force, without the least 
palliating circumstance, no moral character 
whatever. It ought always to be borne in 

15* 



174 

mind, that an objection to be of force, when 
levelled against a moral subject, must 
involve some moral principle, of greater or 
less weight ; a mere capricious faultfinding, 
in any case, is so far from being praise- 
worthy, that it is in the highest degree 
contemptible. From this part of our inves- 
tigation, which has occupied so much of our 
time, we now turn to one possessing more 
beauties, and which, we have no doubt, will 
possess greater attractions to the mind 
imbued with the true spirit of benevolence 
and charity. 



PART III. 



E come now to speak of 
the actual advantages aris- 
ing to individuals from a 
connection with the Inde- 
pendent Order of .Odd Fel- 
lows. 

The motto selected and 
adopted by the order, is " Friend- 
ship, Love, and Truth." In its 
economy, and in the minds of its 
members, these are not mere empty 
words ; for on these the whole super- 
structure rests ; on this basis the whole 
internal procedure of the order is carried 




176 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

on ; here rests its constitution, its by-laws, 
and its practice ; these form the main-spring 
of all its action, and the unyielding cement 
of its union. 

By Love, we do not wish to be under- 
stood as speaking of the sickly fondness 
manifested by effeminate lovers under that 
name, and which plants its root and flour- 
ishes best in the soil of fancy ; which has 
an eye only for a pretty cheek, a symmetri- 
cal form, a lofty carriage, a captivating man* 
ner, or those artful and merely external 
blandishments, which so often captivate, 
though they may have an existence inde- 
pendent of all true worth or principle. But 
we mean that respectful affection which is 
founded in the really valuable and substan-* 
tial qualities of mind ; the beaming forth of 
the true excellence of the noble soul 
which inhabits the external and visible 
man: in a word, that which is the man 
himself. With this view of our kind, Odd 
Fellowship engages in its appropriate work. 



a 



tlje Social Jntluma of ©oft JdLottmljtp. 

^DD FELLOWSHIP proposes 
to confer on its members 
peculiar social advantages, 
and at the same time protect 
them from those dangers 
which often lurk in ambush 
around resorts devoted to these 
purposes. 

The drawing room is a most 
unfit place to form an opinion of 
the character of men ; so is the place 
where the care and anxiety of a business 
life rest with their crushing weight upon 
him. Under such circumstances you do not 
see the man, you only view the drapery 
which imperative circumstances have 
thrown around him. In one instance, his 
brow is prepared to be garnished with a 




178 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

wreath of smiles, and all the beauty of his 
being will be called up for the occasion. 
In the other instance, he acts equally under 
a disguise. Here the sternness of what he 
terms life's realities are crowding around 
him, and as in the drawing room you know 
him only as a man of pleasure, so here you 
know him only as a man of business. 

To understand his worth, you must 
place him in circumstances where the 
diamonds of his nature may flash out with- 
out any borrowed lustre, from the casket in 
which they repose ; you must place him in 
a middle region on a line dividing the two 
extremes ; here place around him men in 
every circumstance of life, and of every 
creed and profession, and before him a 
worthy object to enlist his feelings, and 
then you will have evoked the true man, 
and may study him at your leisure. Does 
he now enter into the feelings and interests 
of those around him? Does he act here, 
where all eyes except a few are shut out 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 179 

from hhn, with interest and energy ? Has 
he forgotten the caste which the world has 
arbitrarily assigned to the men aronnd him ? 
Does he look at them with a fellow feeling, 
and honor them as men, not as rich or poor, 
but men who are acting on the same broad 
bases as himself, and whose hearts beat 
responsive to the same calls as his own ? 
Here it is you will find and learn the man : 
here, where we listen in vain for those 
sounds of discord which ever jar on our ears 
without. Here the better feelings of his 
nature will gain the mastery, the long 
imprisoned, man will be unlocked, and will 
come forth uttering his own true language. 
And here we may study him, stripped of his 
disguise, and love him, not because he has 
a form and complexion like ours, but 
because he possesses a nature which can 
sympathize with those feelings of our own 
which our judgments, our religion, and our 
hearts tell us is right. It is on such devel- 
opments of character we found our right 



180 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

attachments, and such are the develop- 
ments this institution makes. This is the 
true social feeling which, when brought 
into play, heightens our enjoyments and 
makes our intercourse what it was designed 
to be. The man who is thus influenced 
must be a better citizen, a better compan- 
ion, and a better parent. Those feelings 
of misanthropy and distrust, which so often 
embitter the lives of men, and prowls like 
some beast of prey around the hearth-stone, 
are chased away by the smile which this 
confidence inspires. Men under its happy 
effects meet as men,- not as mere commer- 
cial machines, nor as sensual fountains, 
whose happiness is measured by the near- 
ness to the brim to which they are filled 
with the gross substances of this life. Their 
pleasure arises from the out-gushing of 
the same feelings towards the same objects, 
which is heightened by a sense of oneness, 
and equality, and respect, which pervades 
the whole. There is here a confidence of 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 181 

protection against wrong, which is found 
first in this natural confidence each holds 
in the other ; but should this be abused by 
any one holding these sacred bonds too 
loosely, the suffering member has redress in 
a salutary discipline, which seldom or never 
fails to redress the wrong done a complain- 
ing member. It is this state of things 
which makes the lodge-room attractive. 
He who goes there knows he will meet 
nothing which can offend the eye, the ear, 
or the heart. He meets friends. Does he 
need counsel ? he finds those here who will 
be happy to give it to him. Does he need 
comfort and consolation ? here he never tells 
his grief without sympathy. Has he been 
wronged? here are those who in all laud- 
able ways will aid him in obtaining redress. 
Has he met with cruel rebuffs and jeers in 
the world without ? here he finds a state of 
society which will redeem, in a measure, 
that world from the reproach of heartless- 
ness and cruelty; for here he will learn 

16 



182 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

that those are the exceptions, not the rule, 
and hence will be enabled to look upon the 
world with less of the feeling of misan- 
thropy and reproach, and more with pity 
and commiseration. Such are the social 
elements which are fanned into existence 
by the breath of this institution ; such 
the atmosphere in which its members are 
taught to live and breathe. 

We do not say that these chords, which 
are designed, only to discourse harmony to 
our ears, never become relaxed, and some- 
times jar discordantly to the sense. It 
would be a miracle were it otherwise ; but 
this again calls into play the happy influence 
of the society, as it adjusts the discordant 
member, and so obliterates the traces of his 
departure from duty, as to erase almost the 
recollection of the occurrence. It is not 
possible to mingle in such society without 
feeling strong resolution, as it comes up from 
the heart's deep fountain, proposing to us to 
become better as we are made happier men. 



"(Dbb jFell0tt)0()tp prctot0 tlje illorals anb 
£jabit0 of men." 

NOTHER happy result aris- 
ing from this institution, is 
its protecting influence over 
the morals and habits of its 
members. Relaxation from 
business is needed by all men. 
The ever-strung bow must in time 
lose its elasticity, and the mind or 
body constantly worked will as 
certainly become weary and lose its 
power to act at all, or will act but 
feebly. The physical and the intellectual 
man imperatively demand rest, where it may 
find change and amusement. This men will 
have ; and it is unfortunate for our times 
that so many places of doubtful character 




184 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

and tendency spread out their amusements 
to invite the enjoyment. The bar-room, the 
sitting-room of the hotel, the restaurant, the 
billiard-room, and a multitude of places of 
this character, become the resort of many, 
and especially of young men, who, after the 
toils of the day, seek entertainment and 
rest. The influence such retreats have on 
the mind, the danger which lurks within 
their halls, is too well known to need 
a description here. Many minds have 
become aroused to these dangers, and much 
has been done to crush the demon, and in 
some instances, we may say with partial 
effect. But to be successful, the sentinels 
placed to guard men against evil must 
always be on their post; there must be 
something stated and uniform, something on 
which they can depend, something which 
will obliterate all traces of the past, and 
hold its treasure a willing captive to its 
influence. All this we have in the regular 
and stated meetings of this order. No one 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 185 

does or can come there, who has not an 
immediate interest in what is occurring. 

Here men are placed beyond the hum 
of the active pursuits of. life ; they meet 
and associate with friends ; the moral 
atmosphere around them is pure and hal- 
lowing ; those agencies which corrupt and 
intoxicate without, are here excluded : 
while a multitude of agencies are acting 
around him which mould the heart and the 
affections into a beautiful moral symmetry, 
and give tone to the better feelings of our 
nature. He who spends an evening here 
will feel satisfied with himself. He goes to 
his home with a heart more cheerful, with 
a mind more tranquil. He will feel more in 
friendship with himself and the world around 
him. His moral feelings will be instructed, 
his views of moral obligation enlarged ; in 
a word, he will be a better man. To these 
influences add the care and watchfulness 
which is constantly exercised over members, 
with the discipline to which they are sub- 

16* 



186 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

ject, and we can hardly conceive of a class 
of restraints designed to secure from evil 
influences better calculated to accomplish 
so good a purpose. 

Because they do not hear of these 
corrections being applied, many have been 
led, erroneously enough, to suppose they do 
not exist. In respect to an erring brother, 
the Bible says, " Go and tell him his fault 
between thee and him alone, and if he 
repent, forgive him." So says Odd Fellow- 
ship. As no advantage could be gained by 
publishing the errors of another to the 
world, we wisely and humanely keep such 
things where they ought to be, until every 
reformatory measure has been exhausted 
and failed, and then we are permitted to 
tell the fact of the dereliction of the erring 
one, and his separation from the institution 
at the same time. And such is the force 
of this moral influence, working in the 
retreat of the lodge-rocfm, as to have 
effected a most happy change in the life 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 187 

and habits of many young men with whom 
we have the happiness to be acquainted. 
Difficulties which have threatened the most 
serious results to the parties and their fami- 
lies, we have known settled in the most 
amicable and permanent manner. Animosi- 
ties which have festered in the hearts of 
men for years, men who have passed each 
other with averted looks and angry feel- 
ings, we have known brought together and 
reconciled by the force of this influence. 
And some, with whom we have the pleasure 
of an acquaintance, who are now worthy 
members of the Christian church, received 
their first religious impressions while these 
moral forces, and the bearing they were to 
have on their lives and conduct, were being 
explained and enforced to them in the 
lodge-room. Such we believe to be the 
legitimate influence of this society; there 
may be exceptions, there doubtless are ; but 
in what society or institution do not such 
exceptions sometimes obtain ? To prevent 



188 

crime is a much greater virtue than to 
punish it. This we are confident the insti- 
tution has done to a far wider extent than 
is usually acceded to it. Many a young 
man, by imbuing his mind with a feeling of 
self respect, and a sense of obligation to 
society and to God, has been held back 
from dissipation, and secured against the 
wily influences of the designing, until his 
character has assumed a form and consist- 
ency for usefulness in life. 



HO, 

" €)bb JdlotDs^p mlttoaUs t\)t Jtloral feelings." 

MOTHER admirable feature 
connected with this institu- 
tion is, that it cultivates the 
moral feelings. A just sense 
of another's privileges and 
rights, is an attainment of 
invaluable worth among men. It 
is a virtue which all commend, 
and yet it is to be lamented that 
it is one which too few practice. 
This is a virtue which is insisted 
upon by Odd Fellowship. All members are 
forbidden to embroil themselves with any 
who, through ignorance, or even ill-will, 
may traduce the order. The doctrine that 
others have the same right to their opinions 
as we have to ours, is constantly kept in 




190 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

view. Each, in these respects, is required 
and exhorted to square his life by the 
golden rule, "As ye would that others 
should do unto you, do ye even so unto 
them, -for this is the law and the Prophets." 
Here the moral feelings are brought 
directly under the teaching of the best of 
schoolmasters, Divine Eevelation. Were 
such instruction only in theory, it might 
pass like much other teaching which is 
given to the world ; it might garnish many 
a page, and comparatively but few lives. 
But here it is reduced under a regulating 
system to practice. It not only exacts tol- 
eration and charity, but it sets the member 
at once to acting on these principles. The 
individual acknowledges the beauty and 
fitness of the theory. The society says to 
him, go and practice it, and learn the reality 
of its enjoyment. He accordingly com- 
mences at once his first work — contribut- 
ing for the needy, and by the practice ac- 
quires the habit of an active benevolence. 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 191 

At his first step lie learns the luxury there 
is in doing good. " That it is more blessed 
to give than it is to receive." Such is his 
first step. He now advances a second, and 
loves to talk of those who are the recipients 
of his bestowments. He finds it true in this 
case, as in every other, " where the treasure 
is, there will the heart be also." He is thus 
led imperceptibly on to take an interest in 
the welfare of those around him, which he 
never felt before. He begins to look on his 
race with other eyes, and feel for them with 
another heart ; so that when he is called to 
the discharge of the personal offices 
enjoined by the order, he finds his mind 
fitted for the delicate duty devolving on 
him. We might name many instances in 
confirmation of this view of our subject, but 
one or two must satisfy us. 

In a sweet and retired village in central 
New York, which nestles modestly in the 
lap of high surrounding hills, and more than 
half veils itself with the foliage of its abun- 



192 THE ODD FELLOWS* AMULET. 

dant and thrifty growth of beautiful orna- 
mental shrubbery, the tall bulwarks of 
which are garnished with delightful cascades 
and high water-falls, which come sweeping 
down their bold and rocky channels, like 
streams of brilliants, to enrich the most 
friendly people in the world, and by their 
music tranquilize their minds, amid the ac- 
tive scenes which enliven the broad, bright 
Eden vale beneath ; here, in such a place, 
and in the society of such a people, one of 
the choicest minds good New England ever 
gave to the world — and she has given it 
many of whom she may be justly proud — 
fixed his residence, and hoped, with the 
partner of his fond heart, with activity and 
frugality, to enjoy happiness and a compe- 
tence. 

A few brief years rolled on, and brought 
to these choice spirits no change, only from 
bliss to bliss. Their kindness won all hearts ; 
none met but to smile on them. Not even 
slander could find in the dungeon of his 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 193 

iron heart a single shaft he dare lift against 
one so much beloved; for well he knew 
there was goodness in that nature which 
would neutralize an ocean of his venom. 
Such was the kindness of that heart that it 
held a perfect sway over the minds he 
taught, and such his varied information 
that the oldest and deepest read hung on 
his lips to gather knowledge. 

His kind heart could not withhold from 
those more needy than himself, when he 
possessed the means to relieve their wants. 
Hence he was always poor ; and yet he felt 
that in the sight of Heaven at least, his was 
an honorable poverty, at which he need not 
blush. But since the Fall, death and his 
minions have rioted over the earth, and, as 
they list, strike all, both bad and good. He 
of whom we speak fell wounded by his 
shaft. Yet he struggled like a giant against 
the hard disease which lay upon him, and, 
leaning on his crutch and staff, he would 
cheerfully away to the recitation room, to 

17 



194 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

point out the path of knowledge to his 
listening pupils ; or, when too feeble to do 
more, would call them to his room, and, as 
he sat bolstered' in his bed, would discharge 
the duties of his profession. Yet all who 
looked upon him saw that the vital fire was 
waning apace. If any asked him, why this 
incessant toil, they felt they had his answer 
when his moistened and eloquent eye rested 
on his wife and babe. He had been the 
faithful and devoted servant of those who 
called him; he had led their children to 
knowledge by his wisdom, and had pointed 
them to virtue by his example. Something 
had been kindly done by the trustees of the 
institution he served, by making the ser- 
vices required of him more nominal than 
real, but the time had arrived when they 
could do no more, while the cruise of oil 
and the cask of meal were now exhausted. 
Death, too, was near, and the almost wid- 
owed wife and mother saw, on one hand, 
want, lifting his fleshless finger, pointing to 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 195 

the child of her love ; on the other, her 
dying husband, the bitterness of whose cup 
of sorrow must be increased even by the 
softest whisper of her apprehensions ; and 
she, with all the delicacy and diffidence of 
woman, was far from home and kindred, to 
whom alone she felt she could appeal with 
certainty for sympathy and aid. For her 
who had not known want in all her life, 
now to feel it, when the prop Heaven had 
given her on which to lean in such an 
hour, was sinking from under her, was an 
unmingled cup of bitterness indeed. We 
were in the lodge-room when one of the 
members of the order, through the prompt- 
ings of his own generous nature, made 
known the wants of this family, and their 
circumstances. None asked the amount in 
the treasury, none proposed to touch it; 
but many asked the privilege to give ; all 
did give, and with hearts which, if their 
eyes and countenances were an index, 
rejoiced in the opportunity. 



196 



That night, in one house at least in that 
sweet vale, there were grateful worshippers 
at the foot of the cross. In that house 
were such as felt like those who for the 
first time gathered manna in the desert ; 
who felt the force of the tranquilizing as- 
surance of David, "I have been young,' 
and now am old, yet have I never seen 
the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging 
bread." In a few weeks after the occur- 
rence we have spoken of above, this good 
man became a tenant of the house of 
silence. The order followed his remains 
to the place of rest, as citizens ; and con- 
tributed from their private funds near fifty 
dollars, to defray the funeral charges, and 
to enable the now lone widow to return to 
her friends and the home of her childhood. 

In this transaction, Odd Fellows did no 
more than was their duty, and we only 
name it to show the influence the order 
has on the moral feelings, and that this 
influence is not always unproductive of 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 197 

good results. Neither would we wish to 
intimate that these men were really better 
than other citizens. Had they possessed 
an organization as well adapted, and as 
convenient for such an office, they would 
doubtless have done the same thing ; the 
circumstance shows the influence, and the 
advantages of organization, when we would 
direct the affections and hearts of men. In 
other instances, we have seen these societies 
devising plans, and circulating among them- 
selves subscriptions, for the relief of the 
poor generally, in the places where they 
lived, and expending, in a single winter, 
hundreds of dollars in this praiseworthy 
work, and with that cheerfulness and de- 
light which always animates those who 
chase want from the suffering. In such 
efforts, you might see those who, ' under 
different circumstances, would never have 
thought of looking out the destitute in 
their miserable abodes, wending their way 
through streets and lanes deserted by all 

17* 



198 THE ODD FELLOWS* AMULET. 

but those whom poverty compelled to 
reside there, and the feet of those adven- 
turous ones who were inquiring after the 
virtuous needy, and with a delicacy and 
tenderness which do honor to our species, 
proffering their aid wherever such subjects 
of want could be found. 

These are not cases existing in the imag- 
ination only, but are beautiful realities, on 
which we love to dwell, but not because 
such instances are rare in our country ; we 
know they are not, for many are the asso- 
ciations arising from the religious influences 
around us, which partake in this truly good- 
Samaritan work. But when we see those 
who are denominated worldly men; when 
the attorney can be drawn from his office, 
the physician from his profession, the 
merchant from his counting-room, and the 
mechanic from his shop, to go on errands 
like these, we must realize that a new 
era has dawned upon us, and we ought to 
respect and honor the means which has 



199 



peopled the field of kindness and charity 
with these new auxiliaries. 

These instances, of course, are cases 
where relief has been extended by its 
members to those out of the order ; but 
they are instances which show most con- 
clusively that the institution holds the heart 
under a moral influence, which exacts from 
it an acknowledgment of its duty, and to 
some extent awakes it to its discharge. 
We think it cannot be possible that men 
should be thus engaged in these works, so 
justly considered moral, and their moral 
nature not be touched and influenced by 
them. It does appear to us, the Great 
Teacher teaches this doctrine when he 
assures us, that to give a cup of cold water 
in the name of a disciple, is to secure a 
disciple's reward. We do not wish to be 
understood as saying that such work is 
properly religion, as taught by the Bible ; 
but we do say, it is one of the virtues 



200 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

taught by true religion, and he who prac- 
tises it manifests a state of moral feeling 
which advances him nearer to what he 
must be, if he would be truly religious. 
As a consequence he must be made better. 



"3t affbrto Helkf to Jamtlu0 in Skktu00." 

MOTHER advantage which 
attends a connection with this 
institution, consists in the re- 
lief it affords to the minds of 
those families whose head is 
laid on a bed of sickness, from 
much of the care, embarrassment, 
and fatigue inseparable from such 
visitations. At such times, the 
burden of anxiety and care falls on 
that class of persons who are least 
able to bear it, the female. On her 
in this hour of intense anxiety comes the 
whole weight of external business, the labor 
of obtaining proper night attendants for the 
sufferer, domestic oversight, and the care 
of the sick chamber, all crowned with grief 
and the most intense solicitude so natural 




202 

to her heart, for him she loves the best 
of all in the world, and who now suffers. 
Now is the time she reaps the advantages 
arising from the order. Out of the dark- 
ness, which hangs around her like a curtain 
of night, glide forms unasked, the forms of 
those she knows, the forms of friends ; they 
come to lift and bear the load under which 
she was fast sinking. They take the night- 
taper from her hand, and bid her rest, while 
they bend in sleepless vigils the livelong 
night over him, who battles with mortal 
pains as with his destiny ; and as often and 
as regular as the recurring sunset, do they 
return to minister to a pain-worn brother. 
Under their vigilant watch, all without is 
protected, and is safe. Waste, though ever 
lurking in the train of disease, is here de- 
feated in its design, and the affectionate and 
bleeding-hearted wife smoothes the pillow 
of him who is her soul's life, free from the 
corrosion of keen-toothed care, in all else 
but the convalescence of the object of her 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 203 

solicitude. Now the bright stream of sub- 
stantial aid flows out from the fountain, 
where it has been accumulating, unbidden. 
The sick man asks not, what is to become 
of my wife ? where will my children find 
bread ? he has only to look on those around 
him, to find an answer, — he is satisfied. 
Are his circumstances only easy ? Does 
he win his bread by constant industry ? 
The little store he has provided by his 
unwearied toil and ever vigilant economy, 
wastes not away, even though the hammer 
has ceased to fall upon the ringing anvil, or 
his plane no longer cleaves the yielding wood. 
He now draws on other resources, both of 
affection and of help. Here, again, in the 
chamber of affliction are the hearts of men 
schooled in morality ; here, from whence 
they can look through the thin gauze of 
mortality into the spiritrworld, they learn 
what they need to bear such trials, what 
they ought to possess in order to answer 
the great end of their being, and what they 



204 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

must have, if they would pass the deep vale 
of death on seraph's wings, and mount into 
the full sunlight of an immortality of glad- 
ness. 

Let such as do not or cannot appreciate 
these advantages, wait until the trial we 
have been contemplating shall throw its 
dark night around them, before they pass 
judgment on the merits of such advantages. 
Then, we apprehend, such will be better 
qualified to appreciate the office, when they 
shall feel the need of such welcome service. 



Qtnst of Sato xo\)tn among Strangers " 



;NE more advantage arising to 
the members of this society, 
we may be permitted to men- 
tion. It is that which arises 
from a sense of safety, when 
removed to a distance from 
home and kindred. 

We live in an age of change. 
He who thinks himself settled to- 
day, knows not on what enterprise, 
or towards what country he may be 
bending his steps to-morrow. 

Society is changing. Its elements may 
be said, almost without a figure, to be con- 
tinually passing from pole to pole, while the 
great absorbing thought which possesses 
every mind, is, how to acquire possessions in 

18 




206 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

the world. In this state of things, it is not 
surprising that there should be a lamentable 
carelessness respecting the wants of others ; 
that, as a consequence, many who are 
deserving of a better fate, are left to pine 
in want, and die unattended and unwept; 
that others, reduced to poverty, and galled 
by what they call the wrongs of the world 
to them, should turn its enemies, and adopt 
those summary means of subsistence, which 
want often encourages, and which they are 
brought to consider a just retaliation on 
those who they conceive have wronged 
them, is not strange. In such a state of 
uncertainty, there are few who can leave 
their homes for other lands, without just 
apprehension for their safety, and any order 
of things which can contribute to allay 
these apprehensions, and lessen these uncer- 
tainties is humane. But the Odd Fellow can 
throw himself on this troubled wave of hu- 
man life, and let it bear him where it may, 
he has few apprehensions of want or suffer- 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 207 

ing; he is conscious of holding in his hand 
a wand which will bring up out of this 
great life-commotion, this ocean of active 
beings, help for his time of need. If sick, 
if his resources are exhausted, if unholy 
hands have in a moment stripped him of all 
that was his, though he is surrounded only 
by strangers, he has no occasion to beg, or 
to feel that he subsists on charity ; he has 
only to prove himself what he professes to 
be, and his wants are redressed. 

How often are we told of those we knew 
and loved, who, when far from home and 
friends, have at an unexpected moment 
fallen the victim of disease, and while pros- 
trate, perhaps unconscious, have been made 
the victims of more cruel men ; and who, 
when sufficient strength returned to enable 
them to rise from the couch which bore 
them, find themselves with shattered consti- 
tutions and penniless, disease, and more 
greedy men having eat out all their sub- 
stance. Take the history of one such case. 



208 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

He has crept from his gloomy apartment, to 
the haunts of business, and of active, 
healthy life. He thinks of home, of 
friends, of the comforts which, were he 
there, would surround him. But his enfee- 
bled limbs cannot carry him, his means are 
exhausted, and he cannot live where he is ; 
there are none to whom he can apply for 
help, for he knows no one, and the story 
which he tells to those around him, is the 
one they have heard for the ten thousandth 
time, and it has ceased to make an impres- 
sion on their hearts. Still he is surrounded 
by the deadly miasma which has already left 
him only a mere fragment of his former self. 
He sees those conveyances which might bear 
him on the wings of the wind to his home, 
going and returning daily, but they who 
guide them have iron hearts, which can only 
be penetrated by gold; pity for the poor, 
haggard wretch who crawls to their feet, and 
with all the eloquence which arises from the 
consciousness that his life depends upon the 



THE ODD EELLOWS' AMULET. 209 

plea he makes, finds no quivering chord 
there to tremble responsive to his woe ; he 
is again and again repelled, until despair 
seizes on his heart. He turns his eyes, over- 
flowing with bitter tears, towards his home ; 
he thinks of a mother, a wife, a sister, it 
may be his babes, for whom he has braved 
all he now endures; he sees their little 
hands reached out to beckon him home 
again, and the fond visions of the past 
crowd around his memory, peopled with the 
faces of loved ones ; he thinks he hears the 
music of their sweet voices once more 
sounding in his ears, and in the intoxica- 
tion of the delightful delirium, he sees the 
world swim round and round, and hopes it 
is bringing him to their embrace. ■%■■*■•%. 
# * * The next morning, it is simply 
announced in the public journal, " Found 
dead in the streets, a stranger." Potters* 
field closes over him, and they, the thoughts 
of whom were last in his chilling heart, 
weep for one whose rudely coffined form 

18* 



210 THE ODD FELLOWS* AMULET. 

sleeps alone, unheeded and unknown. How 
wide the contrast, where the offices of this 
society reach out their aid. 

I see the stranger in the noisy city. He 
has this moment arrived. His pallid face 
and feeble step, as he summons all his re- 
maining strength to hurry away from the din 
and noise of the busy streets, which crash 
down on his fevered brain like bolts of death, 
tell me of the disease which is enthroned 
within, and which breathes its deadly virus 
along the channels of his boiling blood. I 
tremble for his fate. I see he is intelligent, 
and his mien assures me that he has been 
used to the gentler influences of life. I feel 
an interest for the stranger, and wonder who 
will care for him here, where all is the 
intoxication of enterprise, or the bewilder- 
ment of change and curiosity. I fear for 
his treatment ; and an instinctive shudder 
steals over me, as I contemplate how lonely 
he must be, what unmitigated suffering he 
must endure, and what neglect put up with ; 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 211 

perhaps he may die alone, unpitied and 
unwept. I am tempted to form his 
acquaintance, and do what little I can for 
his s relief; but what can one do, a stranger 
and alone ? While I thus muse, with a full 
heart, balancing as well as I can between 
prudence and duty, I see one in conversa- 
tion with the host : they talk of the stran- 
ger; they pass to the apartment assigned 
him ; soon other forms pass in, and with 
noiseless tread glide spectre-like to the door 
of the room he occupies; they gently lift 
the latch and enter ; soon another, and then 
another group pass on, until that one cham- 
ber appears to be the centre of attraction 
to all comers. I wonder at this. Soon, one 
by one, they pass out again, and, as they 
pass mine host, I hear them say in sup- 
pressed tones, give him every attention. I 
gain the ear of the house-master and say, I 
perceive the invalid gentleman is no stran- 
ger here ; and am surprised to hear him say, 
u Yes, perfectly so, he was never here until 



212 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

this hour." But he appears to have friends, 
though a stranger. " Yes, there are those 
here who will give him all needed atten- 
tion." I wonder at this. Am I in a city 
filled with such kindness and charity ? Do 
the people here only need to be told that 
a stranger has arrived and is sick, to call 
them around him with such readiness ? Do 
they understand instinctively when the 
needy sets his foot on their pavement, and 
as instinctively rally around him to proffer 
their aid ? This must be one of Heaven's 
favored spots on our thorny earth. The 
reign of peace, with all its tranquilizing 
influences, must have begun here, and Eden 
have thrown back her morning to fan these 
hearts with her gales of love. 

This must be the focal spot, whence shall 
radiate the glory of the long preached and 
long desired millennium to all the earth. 
It was thus I mused, when again the same 
light foot-fall caught my ear, and two men 
passed to the apartment of the stranger, in 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 213 

whose interest my feelings had now become 
intense ; and with a heart filled with amaze- 
ment at what had transpired, I sought my 
pillow for the night. At early dawn I 
awoke, and with a mind filled with the 
thoughts of the transactions of the preced- 
ing evening, went forth determined to solve 
this beautiful mystery. In passing, I 
listened at the door of the apartment occu- 
pied by the invalid — all was still within, 
and I passed on. Soon, two gentlemen, 
whom I had seen the evening before, passed 
in and entered the sick-room ; those who 
had watched out the night, passed away; 
and it was thus, day after day and night 
after night. Men came and went as regu- 
larly, and almost as noiselessly as the sun 
and stars ; until one morning at early dawn, 
it was whispered in all our ears, that the 
stranger was touching with his feet the brim 
of the cold Jordan of death, and we all 
hurried to witness the last sad spectacle. 
We were struck, when we entered the apart- 



214 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

men! There, in a wide circle, stood many 
gentlemen, who had assembled at this early- 
hour, with true feeling and intense interest, 
to witness the last sad step of a fellow mor- 
tal, from time to the unmeasured existence 
of eternity. A dim light fell faintly on the 
noble brow of the dying man, and a silence 
which was overwhelmingly eloquent reigned 
through the apartment, save when a deep- 
drawn sigh, which, as it came up from the 
heart's deep well of feeling, sounded and 
reverberated through the room like the low 
mellow peal of some great organ pipe among 
the old solemn arches of some gray and 
time-worn Gothic temple. Soon, the suf- 
ferer opened his languid eyes, and as he 
looked around on those assembled — and 
such a look ! a volume uttered all its pages 
of gratitude in its single expression — and 
then, in the merest whisper, which was made 
startlingly audible by the stillness reigning 
through the room, he said : u Brothers, I 
thank you for all your attention and kind- 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 215 

ness; this is all I have to give, except my 
poor prayers, which I have unceasingly 
offered for heaven's blessings to # attend and 
reward yon." "I trust," said he, and he 
struggled with his deep emotion, "I trust 
you will inform my wife of all that has tran- 
spired in my sickness. Send to her what 
you have written from my lips — and ! 
my sweet boy, must we par»t ? must I look 
no more on those laughing eyes and enjoy 
that merry careless laugh, and hear no more 
the glad childish shout which welcomes me 
to my happy home and fire-side ? " And as 
one present wiped the great tears from his 
manly cheeks, he repeated, as though he 
would hush the rising emotion of those 
around him, for all were in tears : " But the 
order will care for them. I have full con- 
fidence in their love and integrity. I die 
in peace ; farewell ; I die in peace." And 
without a struggle, his spirit passed to that 
happy land where there is no more death. 
On the following day, just as the sun was 



216 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

hiding himself in the far-off west, we stood 
by the side of a new-made grave, the tenant 
had not yet been laid in its deep chamber ; 
there stood around it a solemn and weeping 
concourse, and yet there was no mourner 
there. Still all seemed to mourn. Tears 
coursed down many a manly cheek. And 
when the coffin was let gently down into 
the earth, and the expressive evergreen fell 
on it from each passing hand, sobs mingled 
with the solemn and impressive service 
which fell from the lips of the weeping 
minister. All felt that a more potent elo- 
quence came up from that stranger's grave 
and coffin, than ever fell from human lips, 
since He who went about doing good, spake 
to man. It was the eloquence of a God- 
directed Providence. 

Now, who would hesitate which portion 
to choose either for himself or his friend ? 
and in such choice, do we not assert the 
excellence of the portion which we select ? 
Yet such is the bliss Odd Fellowship is 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 217 

scattering all through our land. Thou- 
sands are the hearts it is causing to rejoice, 
in these daily and active ministrations. It 
is not doing this by reducing the needy to 
a crushing sense of beggary, but when the 
stranger appears at its door, it reaches out 
to him a full hand, and at the same time 
says, " Take this, it is your right." To those 
resting securely and in the midst of abun- 
dance at their homes, cases like those which 
we have detailed may seem incredible. 
They cannot believe the world so careless 
and hard-hearted as one case represents it, 
or as kind and affectionate as it is made to 
appear in the other. But could they read 
the history which any one of our large 
cities could present, for only a single day, 
of cases quite similar to those we have 
named, their doubts would vanish. But 
who would undertake the task of chron- 
icling these events of poverty and scenes 
of heart-rending, in all our cities, for one 
brief year ; and after they should be written 

19 



218 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

out who has a heart stern enough to read 
them ? The truth is, our world is full of 
misery, and so far as man can see, multi- 
tudes of these sufferers are innocent. Many, 
whose prospects were for a time the most 
nattering, have, without any error on their 
part, been precipitated from their high ele- 
vation in a moment, and made subjects of 
the deepest want and suffering ; and these 
form a large class who make up the vast 
array that pine in solitude, without friends 
or bread. We have learned long before 
this, that there are no circumstances, and 
no station, in this life, which can insure us 
against these sad reverses, either at home 
or abroad. How pleasant then it is to 
know that our friends, when separated from 
us and who are far away, have around them 
an additional protection ; that they have a 
passport to stranger's hearts and affections ; 
that they hold a title to property in all 
places whither Providence may direct them, 
and that it is always available, when other 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 219 

resources fail. Under such security, with 
how much greater confidence man launches* 
his adventurous bark on the broad enter- 
prises of life, and against how much of the 
spirit of sordid avarice does it protect him 
in his voyage. Being confident, as he well 
may be, under the shadow of this society, 
he banishes the ever-haunting thought of 
a suffering wife and children, in case his 
health should fail, or death should remove 
him from them. As a consequence, such 
a man is not haunted by the gilded ghost, 
like other men ; he is enabled to give more 
of his life, and with greater success, to im- 
provement, and more to domestic enjoy- 
ment. The corroding cares which eat into 
the vitals of others, are banished from his 
circle, while he and his family rest in peace. 



€>bb Jjellot»0l)tp 10 a Benefit to ti\t Jamxlxts 
of its iHembers." 

MOTHER grateful feature in 
Odd Fellowship is, that it 
always furnishes aid to the 
families of its members, even 
though their natural protector 
is removed from them. We 
have already seen what the offices 
of the order were, in time of sick- 
ness ; but they do not cease when 
y have obeyed this command — 
y are required to bury the dead, 
and educate the orphan. 

There is no duty which requires more 
delicacy and tenderness than the burial of 
the dead, for there is no time in one's life 
when the feelings are wrought up to such 
wakefulness, and to so much tenderness. 




THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 221 

It is then especially the case with woman, 
that all the cherished love of years, all the 
recollections of an affectionate intercourse, 
all the offices of love, all the enjoyments of 
the past, and all the fond and cherished 
hopes for the future, live with increased 
freshness in her memory, while they lie 
shrouded in the coffin. 

At such a time, when the fond heart 
is torn and gashed by a keen sense of its 
irreparable loss ; when it feels that its very 
core has been wrung from it ; even then the 
future will intrude itself on her mind, and 
mingle its own night with the darkness and 
gloom which already cover the soul with 
despair. The cloud which hovers over the 
grave is, to such a mind, the pall of all that 
is sweet and lovely in the world ; and but 
for a few choice jewels which have been left 
by the parent, she would feel blessed, could 
she take her place in the coffin by the side 
of one she loved so well, and there mingle 
her dust with his, in hope of a glorious 

19* 



222 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

resurrection. At such a time, who does not 
feel embarrassed in approaching the sobbing 
mourner, lest he should in any wise encroach 
upon those delicate sensibilities which are 
now so keenly aw r ake. And then, how does 
gold and all the world sink into insignifi- 
cance, when compared with such offices, at 
such a time ; how those who perform them 
are exalted in our feelings, almost to angels ; 
how much of the grief w r e should otherwise 
endure, is lifted from our aching hearts. 
Reader, did you ever see one who had lived 
in your inmost soul, stiff, and cold, and 
breathless ? — did you ever look on lips, 
rigid and cold as those of the statue, which 
had been wont to fill your soul with their 
music ? — did you ever see those eyes closed 
to open no more, which were wont to thrill 
you with rapture by their very gaze ? — did 
you ever see such an one composed in the 
narrow coffin ? — with such an one did you 
ever move slowly to the grave, and see that 
jewel of your soul laid far down in the 



dreamless bed, and hear the falling clods, as 
by their hoarse and solemn voice they 
seemed to say to you what the one you 
loved could not : farewell, a last, last fare- 
well? — did you ever return from thence, 
to realize the utter loneliness of your 
heart in the loneliness of your desolate 
dwelling ? If you have not, then pause 
in your judgment with reference to the 
value of services rendered at such a 
time ; for you cannot understand them, and 
never will, until death and the grave shall 
teach them to you by their own impressive 
lecture. At such a time Odd Fellowship 
appears in its undisguised beauty. It is 
here the advantage of an organization 
appears, in the systematic course which 
characterizes every step they take under 
these trying circumstances. They have 
attended the husband, the father, or the 
brother, through all the perils of his sick- 
bed ; they were present, and comforted the 
mourners by their counsel and their tears, 



224 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

when he died ; they have laid him down in 
his dreamless bed to rest, free from all the 
pains which wrung his heart while he lived. 
But their work is not jet done : they go 
now and find out the cost of suffering, and 
defray the charges which they find, and in 
this way hide from the mourner's eyes and 
sense an aggravating feature of her afflic- 
tion. They shut the door of her apartment 
against the sexton and the undertaker ; 
they hide from her view the necessary 
commerce of death — and then, with a 
brother's feeling they say to her, we are 
your friends. Should want threaten you, 
should business demand it, should foes 
oppress you, should any instance arise 
where we can befriend you, hide it not from 
us, it is our business, it is our duty, it will 
be our pleasure, to redress your wants, and 
light the taper which shall guide you in the 
darkness of your earthly allotments; our 
bosoms, bared to the tempest, shall be a 
bulwark to protect you. To the child they 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 225 

say, ever confide your grief to us; you 
are the representative of one we loved; 
through him we are bound to you ; our 
arms shall protect and guide you ; in our 
hands you are to be borne up ; go on and 
enjoy the facilities we open for the im- 
provement of your mind and the protection 
of your morals. Aside from the holy 
offices which illuminate and warm the soul 
from the altar which burns in Heaven, what 
office could be higher or more comforting 
than this ? What work more God-like than 
to visit the widow in her affliction, and to 
regard the fatherless in their destitution? 
What comfort that can be applied at such a 
time, more appropriate to alleviate sorrow, 
or lift a heavy burden from the heart ? 
What more beautiful than to see men, not 
of his kindred, taking the orphan by the 
hand, leading him away from vice, and 
pointing him to the path of knowledge, 
removing the hinderances which otherwise 
might greatly impede, if not entirely hinder 



226 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

his advance, and encouraging his flight 
along the way of mental development. 

How many thorns does such an assur- 
ance pluck from the pillow of the dying 
parent — with how many relieving circum- 
stances does it surround the bed of death. 
Such are the advantages to society, and to 
individuals, arising out of the existence of 
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 
For these blessings, a thousand hearts 
to-day rise up to call it blessed. 

Thousands are already reaping the 
golden harvest which it has planted and 
nurtured. Hundreds of orphans are now 
living and rejoicing under the wide spread- 
ing shelter of its protection. Thousands of 
dwellings through the land, which would 
otherwise be dark and dreary with despair, 
are now filled with the light and comfort 
which it communicates. It rises up like an 
oasis in our desert world, like a fragrant 
spot, an island of verdure in some vast 
Sahara, planted and watered by the hand of 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 227 

kindness, for all the thirsty and weary who 
travel that way. It is lifted up in striking 
contrast to the careless indifference of the 
multitude who compose the world. It 
shows what may be done by concentrated 
effort, by organized regularity. There is 
wealth enough in our world, to banish want, 
and starvation, and despair, from the centre 
to the circumference of civilized society, 
and this, without adopting any of those wild 
and chimerical agrarian plans on which 
some have insisted. It only wants the wish 
to do so in the breast of all, and a little, a 
very little time, and labor, and money, from 
each, which would do us good, and the work 
is accomplished. But this is not so now, 
and we know not that it ever can or will 
be so, until that age arrives when the 
wolf and the lamb shall lie down together, 
when swords shall be beaten into plough- 
shares, and spears into pruning-hooks, and 
when one law shall bind all nations, and that 
law be love. Until then, we suppose, the 



228 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

affairs of the world will roll on -in their 
usual course ; men will drive through our 
streets in gilded coaches ; they will be 
clothed in purple and fine linen ; they will 
fare sumptuously every day; they will 
have and hold their titles, they will crowd 
every mart for profit and for pleasure ; 
voluptuous music will peal away on the 
night air, accompanied by the deafening 
shout and ceaseless laugh of pleasure ; mer- 
riment will hive her votaries in gorgeously 
furnished apartments; multitudes will take 
their ease, and be waited on by obsequious 
menials ; misers will hoard and count their 
gold. All this will be going on, while just 
behind a thin curtain of board or brick, 
crime will riot ; frost will pinch its victim ; 
hunger will devour the living flesh from the 
bones of its victim; human forms with 
human souls will nestle in cas1>off rags 
which they have filched from the gutter ; 
mothers will weep despairingly over their 
starving children ; starving children will 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 229 

cry for bread ; worth and goodness will toil 
the livelong night away to obtain a morsel 
for their thin and shrivelled bodies ; sickness 
will pine and suffer on its pallet of straw, 
withont any to comfort or alleviate ; there 
are prayers, and there are curses — there are 
wailmgs, and there are lamentations — and 
there are the maniac's laugh and the fool's 
gibberish — all, all mingling and welling up 
from those low, dark, damp haunts of pov- 
erty, want, misery, distress, and vice — 
which speak in Heaven in thunder tones, 
but on earth, who hears them ? who knows 
of them, who cares for them ? And yet all 
exists within a short ear-shot of enough, 
of more than enough to banish the whole 
which makes this dark pandemonium. 

Let those who object to the existence of 
this order, go and look in upon scenes like 
these, and tell us if not only this order, but 
every other agency which can remove, if no 
more, only one grain of affliction from men, 
does not need to exist. Not need to exist ! 



230 

Alas, this is the charity of the world ; a 
charity which, like the dark gathering tem- 
pest, frowns on every work its own tardy 
hands ought to have done, but have neg- 
lected. * This society not needed ! Have 
the agencies which have existed around it 
so long, banished all sorrow from the world ? 
Are there now no poor, none who need aid, 
none liable to reverses? Has the charity 
of the world done it all — will it do it all ? 
0, that we could make the pencil speak the 
living reality on this subject. Then would 
we give the reality to the eye, which should 
personify the benevolence of the world, as it 
really is, and true charity. Had we the 
power, and were we called upon to discharge 
this duty, and give to the eye a portrait 
showing the wide contrast between the 
world as it is, and beneficence as required 
from man to man, first we would portray a 
heart — and such a heart! — it should be 
large, and swollen with mighty grief. Adver- 
sity should stand beside it, and on his brow 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 231 

we would paint his character, stern, dark, 
and unbending ; and with relentless hand 
he should drive deep into that heart his iron 
barb at every blow. It should stand rent 
and quivering with anguish, under each 
cruel stroke. Into every yawning gash, 
black-browed disappointment should pour 
the bitterest wormwood, and in its agony 
the dark blood should ooze from every 
opening pore. Above, we would paint a 
face of such a visage as agony alone can 
make; the cheeks we would have gashed 
with deep channels, the eyes should roll in 
dark bewilderment, and over all should pour 
tears of burning gall. Close beside that 
heart should cluster a group of babes, with 
tearless eyes and countenances bewildered ; 
their limbs unclad, with locks dishevelled, 
their parched and shrivelled lips only half 
covering their unused teeth; while every 
muscle is shrunk and loosely hangs on each 
formless bone, and with their long, bony, 
fleshless fingers, they mark unmeaningly in 



232 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

the dust. Above them all, should hang a 
starless night ; amidst its darkness should 
scream careering, headlong winds ; sleet and 
frost should be the plumage of their pinions ; 
around should loam the heaviest clouds of 
inky blackness ; fierce lightnings should hiss 
and blaze along the thickening gloom, and 
threaten, with fiery tongues, the trembling 
group. Above, should roll and crash a the 
live thunder," as it coursed from battlement 
to pinnacle, along its inheritance of terror. 
And there should stand Humanity alone, 
helpless, friendless, threatened, desolate ! 
Then could we paint a groan, such as nature 
heaves when wildest evils come; could we 
give it color, shape, and life, 'twould tell 
the world's humanity ! 

Far remote from this gloomy blackness, 
should appear a rising star; a halo should 
surround it; and in its broad circle should 
gather forms of beauty; and on their lips 
should hang the sweetest song of hope, and 
at the bidding of their fingers, a thousand 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 233 

lutes should swell in loudest minstrelsy, 
the sweet response ; each countenance, like 
the bow of promise, should beam with benev- 
olence; and from their glittering ranks 
should flow far away on the darkness, floods 
of unrivalled light. 

Far on the other hand, should stand a 
temple ; fair in its proportions, and majestic. 
On it should smile unclouded, endless sun- 
shine. Around it should carol the friendly 
gales of bliss. From under its wide portals, 
should gush a constant stream of sparkling 
beneficence. Around it endless spring 
should live; and in its halls the song of 
happy contentment and resignation, should 
ever warble in sweetest strains. Then, on 
the wings of light, should move the sons 
and daughters of sublime charity ; darkness, 
storm, and tempest, should be afrighted from 
their path; in their glory the fierce light- 
ning should be eclipsed ; and at the cadence 
of their strain, the angry thunder should 
keep silence. Their path should lead them 



234 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

to the group of sufferers. On their golden 
pinions they should bear the heirs of want 
and anguish, and plant them in the temple 
of rest and happiness ; and at the door keep 
vigils day and night, lest want or woe might 
enter. And over the portals we would 
write, "The asylum for the needy and 
the oppressed." Such is the charity of the 
world, with all its boasts ; and such the 
charity which aids the world's victim ! with 
what propriety has it been christened God- 
like ? 



PART IY. 



a wtf> to tfy fltoMk, 

ITH such views of the rec- 
titude of the principles, 
and the worthiness of the 
objects of Odd Fellowship, 
we confidently submit it to 
the investigation of candid 
minds. The enlightened, we 
are confident, will not judge 
?- harshly of it, until they find 
what they believe to be good reason 
to do so. They will conduct . their 
investigations with closeness and can- 
dor, and we invite them to such scrutiny. 
We earnestly hope they will furnish them- 




236 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

selves with the records of the institution, 
and that they will study them ; that they 
will probe the whole to the bottom, and 
bring up from its mysterious deep any 
hidden poison they may find lurking there. 
We court investigation. The want of it, 
we are confident, has been an injury to us. 
Many have taken it for granted that we 
were a secret institution, that they there- 
fore could know nothing with certainty 
respecting it. As a consequence, they 
have never made an attempt to do so, but 
have taken up their conclusions without the 
shadow of a premise. That these have 
often been unjust and slanderous, we have 
already seen. Of all this we are not dis- 
posed to complain, so much as to commis- 
erate the propensity and shortsightedness of 
the multitude, in involving in indiscriminate 
condemnation men who differ from them in 
matters which involve a moral principle of 
so great magnitude and importance. We 
only ask that the institution may be judged 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 237 

by that most reasonable and authoritative 
rule of Scripture ; u By their fruits ye shall 
know them." 

If the results of a connection with this 
society are bad, in a majority of instances — 
if men become worse husbands and fathers 
and citizens, then condemn it ; but if it 
produces good, morally and physically, we 
are bound at least to cease our opposition 
to it, and allow it to work on. It is no 
time, in these days of general dissipation 
and of moral delinquency, to oppose any 
influence which can add one grain to give 
the balance of right the preponderance. 
Wherever such an influence is found, every 
good man, every lover of his race ought, 
and will bid it God-speed. 



238 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 



To the Ladies we may be permitted to 
say, this institution is for you. Its objects 
relate to you personally, or to those as dear 
to you as your own selves, your children, 
and your husbands. You, so far from being 
excluded from participation in its opera- 
tions, are made its most efficient auxiliaries. 
What is kept from you, could do you no 
good ; and, consequently, we feel assured 
you have no desire to come in possession 
of such a treasure. If you would not insist 
on keeping for your husband his deeds or 
insurance policy, you would not desire what 
this institution has entrusted to his care, for 
your good. 

It has been said that all the ladies are 
opposed to this institution. But we think 
we have data which justifies us in repelling 
the charge. We have the honor of an 
acquaintance with many of the most intelli- 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 239 

gent ladies of our State, and can testify in 
their favor on this subject. We do not 
remember one, in the wide circle of our 
acquaintance, who understands the prin- 
ciples of the order, who is not, so far from 
being unfriendly to it and arraying them- 
selves against it, heartily in . favor of it ; 
and many of them, who, under the popular 
prejudice, opposed it, have, when informed 
on the subject, become importunate for 
their husbands and sons to become mem- 
bers. And many are the wives and sisters 
we have the pleasure of knowing, who with 
their own fair hands, delight in preparing 
the most tasty and expressive badges of the 
order. 

"Woman opposed to Odd Fellowship ! 
No one who knows her character for intel- 
ligence, and her love for the kind offices of 
relief, would ever dare to make the asser- 
tion. She may be misled for a time by 
those who are prejudiced, while all the 
means of information the order affords are 



240 THE ODD FELLOWS 5 AMULET. 

studiously kept from her eye ; under such 
circumstances, her feelings may be arrayed 
against the institution. But no sooner is 
she informed on the subject, no sooner does 
she see its happy influence on society, no 
sooner does she find its heart pulsating with 
kindness, than her minstrel voice is heard 
cheering on its long lines of noble-hearted 
men, in the work they have covenanted to 
do, while she fervently blesses the day 
which prompted the noble union. And 
well she may, for who is more deeply 
wounded by the reverses of this life than 
she ? who feels the smart of disgrace more 
keenly? on whom falls the crushing bolt 
more certainly ? and who drinks to its dregs 
the cup of woe more patiently, or more 
resignedly, and uncomplainingly, than 
woman ? Find woe where you will, and it 
falls on woman. By its shaft, the heart of 
some wife, or mother, or sister, or daughter, 
is struck. And he who alleviates pain or 
sorrow, or averts the point of threatening 



241 

calamity, does so much to bless woman. He 
who shields another from immorality, or 
crime, or reverse, has done so much to pro- 
tect woman's heart. And he who contrib- 
utes to increase the social qualities of man, 
to lead him to elevate the standard of 
morality, has by so much done something to 
heighten the joys of woman. Say not, you 
may never need the offices of this society. 
We hope you never may. But then, alas, 
the day may be already marked on the cal- 
endar, which shall bring with it the wounds 
this society is designed to heal. But should 
you not need it, some one else will, and will 
you derive no enjoyment from blessing 
others ? Such is woman's nature as to make 
us confident that this forms one of the chief 
sources of her highest enjoyment. Go on, 
then, ye daughters of this favored land, in 
that blest work of scattering peace and joy 
around the path you tread. May that path 
ever be one of flowers and of fragrance ; 
may you never be called to weep as others 



242 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

have wept, alone, and without guardian or 
protector ; may you never be called to shed 
your unavailing tears over the fall of hus- 
band, sire, or son, like many others of our 
time ; may you never feel the withering 
touch of want, or the thrill of agony which 
has wrung so many hearts around you; 
may it never be your lot to pine in loneli- 
ness, be shut out from the society of the 
world, and with tearful melancholy remem- 
ber, that of all the summer swarm of pro- 
fessed friends who once glittered around 
you, in the days of your prosperity, not 
one is left to take you by the hand to lift 
you up, not one to speak your name, not 
one to sigh or weep with you, and all 
because you chance to be guilty of the high 
and gloomy crime of poverty. Pass on, 
ye loved ones ; gather the smile of friends 
as you go, live in the affections of hearts 
worthy of you, and may no higher ill betide 
you than the ever-laughing pleasure of a 
peaceful home and fireside, and the sweet 



THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 243 

music of a thousand voices leaping from the 
lips of the poor you have comforted, as 
they gather around, at the sound of your 
footfall, to call you blessed. 



<&o ti)t Mtmbtxs of % <H)rtor. 

To the members of the order, we may be 
indulged in a few words : Whatever others 
may think of our order, you, brothers, know 
the exposition we have given of its designs 
and principles is correct. You know that 
you have solemnly covenanted to be gov- 
erned by these principles, to make them the 
rule of your lives. You need not to be told 
of the manner, nor the authority, by which 
these principles are enforced. It is enough 
for us to say, you have recognized their 
heavenly origin, and that your own good 
sense not only approves their rectitude, but 
acknowledges their importance. 



244 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

However you may have looked upon 
this order, and your relations and obliga- 
tions to it, heretofore, you will learn from 
these pages that yours is a high office, that 
your relations are of no ordinary character, 
and that on you rests a high moral responsi- 
bility. You are not to be governed by a 
sordid selfishness in your intercourse with 
the world ; you cannot be ; the interests of 
a hundred thousand of your fellow-citizens 
are linked with yours ; the world, the whole 
world, is the vast field which invites the 
culture of your hands. 

If in this work you are unfaithful, if you 
are untrue to these principles, you are not 
affected alone, but your want of rectitude 
reaches the whole order. Many will judge 
of it by your life and conduct, and you may 
be assured, if these disagree with your 
avowed principles, the consequences fall not 
merely on yourself, but on those who are 
innocent, on your worthy brethren, on the 
widow and the fatherless. 



245 

By unworthy acts, you not only pierce 
your own heart, and stab your own reputa- 
tion, with suicidal madness, but you aim a 
dangerous blow at the very vitals of your 
friends. The eyes of the world are upon 
you. They are contemplating your actions, 
and their impressions of this order will be 
shaped according to your character. If 
that be good, they will be favorably im- 
pressed with what you know to be a good 
institution ; but should your actions be un- 
worthy, an unfavorable impression is made, 
which the wear of time cannot obliterate. 

Let us beware, therefore, how we indulge 
our passions, and much more, how we are 
brought into captivity by them. Groans 
and misery are in the world. Let us find our 
pleasure in hushing the one, and in reliev- 
ing the other. Let us find our pastime in 
bearing the torch of comfort to the darkest 
hut, and in lighting there "the blaze of joy 
and contentment. Let us seek our happi- 
ness, not in listening to the roll of martial 



246 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

music, the roar of cannon, and in the neigh- 
ing of the war-horse and the shout of fame, 
but in the blessing of the widow and the 
orphan, and those who are ready to perish. 
Clean hands and pure hearts ought to char- 
acterize those who come to such offices, and 
these we ought ever to wear. Above all, 
brothers, let us not be forgetful of our 
higher calling. The glass of many of us is 
almost run; the spade is already lifted to 
hollow out for many of us the narrow 
house ; we are just ready to witness the 
sundering of earthly ties; the moment 
comes when wife, or children, or brethren^ 
cannot hold us back from our returnless 
voyage ; the friends who have gone before 
are beckoning us from earth — all, all 
beneath the stars is passing away ; we, too, 
are on the wing ; death hurries to meet us, 
and we are hurrying to meet death. Have 
we that charm which, when we grasp his 
fleshless, frosty fingers, will make our spirits 
flames of unextinguished glory, or shall that 



247 



touch chill our hearts and freeze our hopes 
forever ? There are few of us who have 
not friends in heaven, and all of us have 
the opportunity here to add to the num- 
ber already there, through the offices we 
are enabled to perform by the aid of this 
institution. Those offices are calculated to 
frame our minds, and fit them for those 
high virtues which are necessary for us, if 
we would enter upon blessedness in eternity. 
Then let us seize that righteousness 
which is by faith ; let us lay hold on eternal 
life ; let us walk in the light of those high 
virtues which arise from loving the author 
of our blessings with all the heart, which 
spring up out of the great code that Deity 
has seen fit to give the world. Then shall 
we not only hold the sublime form, but the 
sublimer substance ; we shall not only have 
the external beauty but the internal glory, 
deeply engraven on our hearts. Let this be 
our aim, and then, when earth's highest 
noon shall fade to our glazing eye into the 



248 THE ODD FELLOWS' AMULET. 

faintest evening twilight — when the scenes 
of the death-couch are enacting around 
us — when tears are fast falling on our 
pillow from the eyes of those who loved 
us — when cherished forms seem to recede, 
and we can only hear the far-off sob and 
wailing of those we leave behind us — 
when the last adieu, like the dying strains 
of far-off music as it lingers on the quiver- 
ing harp-strings, sounds on our ear, how 
sweet to the soul its visions ; what forms of 
beauty sweep in robes of light along the 
apartment now — what radiant smiles, what 
iEolian whispers, w T hat voluptuous music; 
how in every face is seen one benefited 
and befriended for the name of Christ ; 
above all, rises a glittering, burning cross — 
and he who is passing away cries, as 
he beholds it, " Death, where is thy 
sting ! " And he who graced the cross 
responds, * Inasmuch as ye did it unto one 
of the least of these my brethren, ye have 
done it unto me." 



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tJSHftHI 0F CONGRESS 



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